The Elder Scrolls Online Update 29 v6.3.0 PTS Patch Notes

Brandon Adams

Published: Jan 27, 2021 03:45 pm

Update March 8th, 2021

The full patch notes for the live servers are up now, and you can read them by following the link here. Update 6.3.5 is the final list of changes coming in Update 29, so be sure to check those notes out. Everything below is from the first PTS patch, and is no longer relevant.

Original Story

There are two new dungeons to try out in Update 29 – Black Drake Villa, and The Cauldron – but the Champion Point System update is perhaps the most impactful change coming to The Elder Scrolls Online in patch v6.3.0. The current system, which features 9 total constellations and an assortment of “stars” to choose from will receive a massive overhaul in v6.3.0. The constellations will be compressed down to three (Warfare, Fitness and Craft), and Champion Point allocation will work a touch differently than before.

The basic idea remains the same: you’ll earn Champion Points while playing The Elder Scrolls Online, and you’ll dump them into “stars” within the three new Constellations debuting in the Update 29 patch v6.3.0 PTS. Instead of each point increasing a stat by a small margin, every star passive will be broken down into thresholds that unlock a larger, more substantial stat boost once the requisite number of Champion Points have been invested. For example, you’ll now have to invest say 30 Champion Points into a star to earn the first bonus. Each star will have different requirements, but the idea here is to flatten the vertical progression within the Champion Point system into something more deliberate and horizontal once Update 29 goes live.

There are even “active” passives that have to be equipped in order to take affect, which is done by dragging them into one of the four available slots for that specific constellation (for a total of 12). The Champion Point cap is also rising in The Elder Scrolls Online v6.3.0, from its current 810 ceiling to 3600. To make this increase more palatable, the curve in which Champion Points are earned in The Elder Scrolls Online Update 29 PTS is being adjusted in patch v6.3.0 to expedite point acquisition, at least in the earlier stages.

There’s far more to The Elder Scrolls Online Update 29 PTS patch v6.3.0, such as changes to Armor passives, which you can read below. You can download the PTS and try v6.3.0 from The Elder Scrolls Online launcher by clicking the cog for the Settings menu at the top, and then enabling the PTS. Remember, since The Elder Scrolls Online v6.3.0 is in testing anything you see here in the patch notes can and will likely change before Update 29 patch v6.3.0 launches in March. Be sure to provide feedback over on The Elder Scrolls Online PTS forums to ensure v6.3.0 is in tip-top shape when it goes live.

The Elder Scrolls Online Update 29 v6.3.0 PTS Patch Notes

“Welcome to The Elder Scrolls Online v6.3.0, featuring the Flames of Ambition DLC and the start of the Gates of Oblivion year-long adventure! This DLC adds two new 4-player dungeons for you to tackle – Black Drake Villa and The Cauldron – in addition to several new item sets, collectibles, achievements, and furnishings.

Update 29, the latest base game update free for all players, brings about a number of significant changes and new features. First and foremost, we’ve updated the entire Champion Point system with a new UI and all-new stars to choose for your characters. Equipped Armor pieces also now passively augment your character’s effectiveness, and you can view additional combat stats in a new Advanced Stats UI.

Housing enthusiasts will be excited to utilize a new feature to fast travel outside your home, and we’ve made several improvements when previewing furnishings and houseguests. We’ve also added many new furnishings for you to enjoy!

PC/Mac NA characters have been copied this week, though please note all skills are reset due to the issue outlined in this forum post, and all CP is reset due to the new Champion System. We hope you enjoy this latest update, which is approximately 1.85GB in size, and we look forward to reading your feedback!”

New Features/Updates/Big Changes

Flames of Ambition DLC

New Dungeons

Black Drake Villa: Tucked away in the northern Gold Coast sits an abandoned villa built as a retreat for former Emperor Durcorach, the Black Drake. Rumors tell of a vast library deep below that holds knowledge pillaged from across Tamriel. Hired by a mysterious benefactor, Eveli Sharp-Arrow arrives in search of a valuable book and a little adventure, but she soon discovers someone has set fire to the underground archive. Join Eveli in a race to find the book and defeat the forces behind the consuming blaze.
The Cauldron: Long-forgotten ritual sites and ruins of the past fill the mountains of western Deshaan and serve as enticing sources of power for devious forces. When the citizens of a quiet Dark Elf village start to go missing, all eyes turn to the sinister cult residing in a nearby abandoned mine. Delve deep underground to rescue the kidnapped people and stop a dark ritual before it can unleash destruction.
Black Drake Villa and The Cauldron are 4-player dungeons which can be reached via the Gold Coast and Deshaan respectively.
- Black Drake Villa’s entrance is in the northern Gold Coast, with the entrance east of the Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary.
- The Cauldron’s entrance is located in western Deshaan, west of the West Narsis Wayshrine. Did we mention you need to go west?
Both Dungeons include a Normal version in addition to a challenging Veteran version. In addition, Black Drake Villa features challenging Hard Modes for each of the three boss encounters.
There are unique item sets, including two new Undaunted Monster Mask sets, only available within the Dungeons, in addition to the following rewards:
- Unique achievement awards
- Unique Skin
- A unique memento
- Several Titles
- Unique housing items

New Item Sets
There are several new item sets that are obtained through the two new dungeons:

Blake Drake Villa
- True-Sworn Fury (Light Armor)
  - 2 – Adds 687 Spell Critical
  - 3 – Adds 129 Spell Damage
  - 4 – Adds 1096 Maximum Magicka
  - 5 – Adds 708 Spell Critical and increases your Critical Damage by 4%. This bonus doubles to 1416 Spell Critical and 8% increased Critical Damage when you are under 75% Health. This bonus quadruples to 2832 Spell Critical and 16% increased Critical Damage when you are under 50% Health.

- Kinras’s Wrath (Medium Armor)
  - 2 – Adds 129 Weapon Damage
  - 3 – Adds 657 Weapon Critical
  - 4 – Adds 129 Weapon Damage
  - 5 – Dealing damage with a Light or Heavy Attack grants you a stack of Burning Heart for 5 seconds, up to 5 stacks. While you have 5 stacks, you generate an aura of wrath, granting you Major Berserk, increasing your damage by 10%. While you have an aura of wrath, Allies within 12 meters of you gain Minor Berserk, increasing their damage done by 5%.

- Drake’s Rush (Heavy Armor)
  - 2 – Adds 1206 Maximum Health
  - 3 – Adds 1096 Maximum Stamina
  - 4 – Adds 1096 Maximum Stamina
  - 5 – When you Bash an enemy, you and up to 11 group members within 15 meters of you gain Major Heroism for 12 seconds, granting you 3 Ultimate every 1.5 seconds. This effect can occur once every 18 seconds.

- Encratis’s Behemoth (Monster Mask)
  - 1 – Adds 1096 Maximum Magicka
  - 2 – Dealing Flame Damage to an enemy grants you Behemoth’s Aura for 12 seconds that reaches up to 12 meters. You and up to 11 group members in the aura reduce Flame Damage taken by 5%. Enemies in the aura increase their Flame Damage taken by 5%. This effect can occur once every 15 seconds.
The Cauldron
- Unleashed Ritualist (Light Armor)
  - 2 – Adds 1096 Maximum Magicka
  - 3 – Adds 1096 Maximum Magicka
  - 4 – Adds 1096 Maximum Magicka
  - 5 – Dealing damage to an enemy applies Ritualist’s Mark to them for 10 seconds. Enemies with your Ritualist’s Mark take an additional 16% damage from your summoned pets.
  Developer Comment: This includes pets summoned from other item sets such as Mad Tinkerer and Defiler. This does not include “pet-like” effects, such as the Cliff Racer from the Dive ability or Honor from the Coldharbour’s Favorite set.

- Dagon’s Dominion (Medium Armor)
  - 2 – Adds 129 Weapon Damage
  - 3 – Adds 1096 Maximum Stamina
  - 4 – Adds 129 Weapon Damage
  - 5 – Adds 492 Weapon Damage to your area of effect abilities
  Developer Comment: This set adds 492 Weapon damage to your Area of Effect healing abilities, such as Vigor and Soothing Spores as well.
- Foolkiller’s Ward (Heavy Armor)
  - 2 – Adds 1487 Armor
  - 3 – Adds 1487 Armor
  - 4 – Adds 1206 Maximum Health
  - 5 – Activating Block while in combat places a damage shield on you and 3 group members within 18 meters for 2 seconds that absorbs 4000 direct damage. If a damage shield breaks, the wearer of the shield restores 5680 Magicka and Stamina. This effect can occur once every 30 second if a damage shield broke. This effect can occur once every 10 seconds if no damage shields broke.

- Baron Zaudrus (Monster Mask)
  - 1 – Adds 548 Maximum Stamina
  - 1 – Adds 548 Maximum Magicka
  - 1 – Adds 603 Maximum Health
  - 2 – Applying a status effect to an enemy grants you a stack of Zaudrus’s Ambition for 10 seconds, up to 3 stacks max. When you gain 3 stacks, the stacks are removed and you gain 3 Ultimate. On gaining Ultimate, you cannot gain additional stacks of Zaudrus’s Ambition for 2 seconds.

New Collectibles, Outfit Styles & Dyes

Illusory Salamander Stone Memento: Obtained by completing the Black Drake Villa Conqueror achievement.
Dagon’s Viscerent Skin: Obtained by completing the Cauldron Conqueror achievement.
Fire-Forged Maul Outfit Style: Obtained by earning the Flames of Ambition Explorer achievement.
Scintillating Scarlet Dye: Obtained by completing the Flames of Ambition Delver achievement.
Daedric Unwarding Amulet: Obtained by completing the Emperor’s Secret quest.

New Achievements and Titles
Flames of Ambition introduces over 30 new achievements, four new titles and one new dye.

The “Ardent Bibliophile” title is earned by completing the Ardent Bibliophile Achievement.
The “Flamechaser” title is earned by completing the Snuffed Out Achievement.
The “Subterranean Smasher” title is earned by completing the Subterranean Smasher Achievement.
The “Spark of Vengeance” title is earned by completing the Schemes Disrupted Achievement.

New Furnishings
New Bust and Trophy furnishings have been added to commemorate victory in the Black Drake Villa and The Cauldron dungeons.

New Motifs
Two new Motifs, Nighthollow and Wayward Guardian, are available for testing via the character templates. These new Motifs will not be available at the launch of Update 29, and will instead be made available sometime after launch.

Base Game

Champion Point System Update
In this update, we’ve revamped the entire Champion Point (CP) system with an updated UI and all-new stars to choose. Now, when building your character, you’ll have more choices than ever before.

The goals for this change include several factors:
- This new system encourages horizontal progression over vertical progression.
- The new Champion system reduces how many passives are on a character at one time, reducing the calculations per combat action.
- Expandability is essential to the health of character progression, and the revamped Champion system has far greater flexibility for expansion in the future.
The Constellations have been renamed from the Mage, Warrior and Thief to Warfare, Fitness and Craft.
Constellations have been reduced from 9 to 3, but the variety of stars available to spend points in has greatly increased.
Stars are interconnected in a way such that spending enough points to unlock the bonus awarded from a star, will also unlock the path to its connected stars.
Stars within constellations are categorized under two main types:
- Non-Slottable: These are stars which give you their noted stats and do not need further interaction other than adding the requisite points to activate the stat bonus listed.
- Slottable: These are stars which give you their noted stats and must be added to the new Champion bar to activate the bonus listed in the star.
We’ve added a new Champion bar to the top of the Champion Constellations UI. This allows you to slot up to 4 stars from each of the 3 Constellations.
- You can swap out any slotted star at any time while not in combat.
- The cost of respec’ing your Champion Points is still 3000 gold.
The CP cap per update has been lifted, and you can now spend up to the 3600 point cap. We’ve adjusted the rate at which you gain CP to accommodate for the cap lift.
You still only earn Champion Points at level 50 or higher, but as with the original CP system, you can spend any you have earned regardless of your level.
All characters have had their base Health increased to 16,000, up from 8744 and their Magicka and Stamina has increased to 12,000, up from 7958.
- These changes were made to offset the loss of the 20% stat increases gained from the original Champion Point system, where spending 100 points in a tree would increase the base stat of the tree by 20%.
Characters now also take 15% reduced damage at base, to reduce the loss of the mitigation from the Champion Point system.
Characters now also start with 20 Weapon and Spell Damage at level 1 and gain an additional 20 per level, up to 1000 at level 50.

Armor Changes
Equipped Armor pieces now passively augment your character’s effectiveness at a base line, in addition to their purchasable passives. Their effects are now denoted in the Armor section of the Skills screen and are unlocked immediately upon unlocking the Skill Line itself. You can find their effects below:

Light Armor Bonuses
- Reduces your damage taken from “Magical” (Magic, Flame, Frost, and Shock Damage) attacks by 1% per piece worn
- Reduces the cost of Roll Dodge by 3% per piece worn
- Increases your Movement Speed while Sneaking by 5% per piece worn
- Reduces the cost of Break Free by 5% per piece worn
- Reduces the cost of Bash by 3% per piece worn
Light Armor Penalties
- Increases your damage taken from “Martial” (Physical, Poison, Disease, and Bleed Damage) attacks by 1% per piece worn
- Increases the cost of Block by 3% per piece worn
- Decreases your damage done with Bash by 1% per piece worn
Medium Armor Bonuses
- Reduces the cost of Sprint by 1% per piece worn
- Reduces the cost of Sneak by 5% per piece worn
- Reduces the cost of Block by 3% per piece worn
- Reduces your damage taken from Area of Effect Attacks by 2% for 2 seconds after you Roll Dodge
- Increases your Movement Speed by 2% while immune to crowd control
Heavy Armor Bonuses
- Reduces your damage taken from Martial attacks by 1% per piece worn
- Increases the amount of damage blocked by 1% per piece worn
- Increases damage done with Bash by 3% per piece worn
- Reduces your damage taken while immune to crowd control by 2% per piece worn
Heavy Armor Penalties
- Increases your damage taken from Magical attacks by 1% per piece worn
- Reduces the Movement Speed bonus of Sprint by 1% per piece worn
- Increases the cost of Roll Dodge by 3% per piece worn
- Increases the size of your detection area while Sneaking by 10% per piece worn (making you easier to detect)
The above changes were done to help increase the effect that Armor plays on your build, by augmenting your Core Combat Mechanics such as Break Free, Roll Dodge, and Sprint in ways that are not already apparent in the paradigms. Additionally, the “Rock Paper Scissors” effect that Armor was originally meant to follow should have more sharp effects in PvP situations, where Light Armor is stronger versus Heavy but weaker versus Medium, and Heavy is stronger versus Medium.
We also tried to avoid outright buffing the same exact playstyles that already exist with some Armor types in efforts to improve armor viability, rather than reinforcing the existing patterns.
- For example, Light Armor has much more freedom with most of its Stamina costs but is less effective with outright soaking damage. Heavy Armor is now slower but bulkier, and Medium Armor is more slippery but with less sharp bonuses as it has no drawbacks.
All armor passives now scale per piece of Armor equipped, rather than some of them granting bonuses while wearing 5 pieces or more. This, along with the new penalty and bonus system of Armor, should help diversify build variety and increase the viability of unique options such as 4/3 and all 7 pieces of the same Armor weight being worn.
- Light Armor
  - Concentration: This passive now grants 469/939 Spell Penetration per piece of Light Armor worn, rather than 2442/4884 when wearing 5 pieces or more.
  - Prodigy: This passive now grants 0.5/1% Spell Critical per piece of Light Armor worn, rather than 5/10% when wearing 5 pieces or more.
  - Spell Warding: Increased the amount of Spell Resistance granted per rank to 363/726, up from 182/363.
- Medium Armor
  - Agility: This passive now grants 1/2% Weapon Damage per piece of Medium Armor worn, rather than 7/15% when wearing 5 pieces or more.
  - Dexterity: Decreased the amount of Weapon Critical granted to 0.3/0.6/1% per piece of Medium Armor worn, down from 0.3/1/1.5% per piece.
- Heavy Armor
  - Rapid Mending: This passive now increases your Healing Taken by 1% for every 2/1 pieces of Heavy Armor worn, rather than 4/8% when wearing 5 pieces or more.
  - Resolve: Decreased the amount of Armor granted per piece of Heavy Armor worn to 114/229/343, down from 121/142/363.
  - Revitalize: This passive now increases the resources restored from your fully-charged Heavy Attacks by 2/4% per piece of Heavy Armor worn, rather than 12/25% when wearing 5 pieces or more.

Advanced Stats
You can now view additional combat stats about your character by selecting Advanced Stats within the Character menu. This includes a variety of additional offensive, defensive, and utility bonuses that your character currently has based on their equipment, buffs/debuffs, Skill and Champion Point expenditures. Additionally, Physical and Spell Penetration have been added to the main stats view.

Fast Travel Outside of Homes
There are many reasons to visit your lovely home, but sometimes you just want to use it as a handy fast travel point! For times like those, you can now select the “Travel to Outside” option when traveling to any of your homes, and it will take you right outside the front door without any extra loadscreens. You can of course still travel straight inside, as before, with the “Travel to Inside” option.

Furnishing & Houseguest Preview Improvements
You can now preview furnishings and furnishing plans directly from your inventory. No more guesswork when deciding whether to learn a plan! In addition, Houseguest previews on the Crown Store now include a selection of voice lines, so you can get a better sense of their overall identity.

New Homes
Two new homes are available for testing during this PTS cycle:

Kushalit Sanctuary: The recently abandoned Sheogorath shrine that locals call Assalkushalit features a statue to the Mad God within its stony hall. Whether you revere this Daedric Prince or want a home nestled in Red Mountain, this portal-ridden sanctuary can be yours!
Varlaisvea Ayleid Ruins: Ancient pillars along the Abecean Sea mark the site of once-soaring Ayleid architecture. Though none know the original purpose of these structures, some claim that soaking in the retreat’s indoor crystal pool heals the spirit.

New Furnishings
In Update 29, we’ve added several new furnishings to acquire and have made some quality of life changes.

New Dwarven Structural Items
- We’ve added a new set of 20 Dwarven furnishing plans in the Markarth style. These have a chance to appear in Markarth Reward Coffers, which are awarded for completing world boss and delve daily quests in The Reach. These plans include various platforms, pillars, and stairways, as well as other structural components—including plans for a fireplace, a double door, and a tower!
New Master Writ Furnishings
- Rolis Hlaalu, the Mastercraft Mediator, has 7 new furnishing plans available for purchase:
  - Diagram: Dwarven Minecart, Ornate
  - Pattern: Solitude Yarn Rack, Colorful
  - Blueprint: Solitude Well, Noble
  - Praxis: Solitude Hearth, Rounded Tall
  - Formula: Vampiric Cauldron, Distilled Coagulant
  - Design: Provisioning Station, Solitude Grill
  - Sketch: Dwarven Crystal Sconce, Mirror
- As usual, Rolis has handed some of his prior furnishing plans over to his assistant, Faustina Curio, the Master Writ Achievement merchant. In order to help manage the growing number of furnishing plans on her store, she’s consolidated her offerings. Her furnishing plans are now grouped together into Folios based on when they first appeared in her store. Opening a Folio will give you tradable copies of all of the plans inside and costs the same as it would have cost to buy all the recipes in that Folio individually. The most recent set of furnishing plans are still available individually. The contents of each Folio are as follows:
  - Crafter’s Furnishing Folio
    - Diagram: Apparatus, Boiler
    - Formula: Case of Vials
    - Diagram: Apparatus, Gem Calipers
    - Blueprint: Podium, Skinning
    - Blueprint: Tools, Case
    - Formula: Bottle, Poison Elixir
    - Design: Mortar and Pestle
    - Blueprint: Cabinet, Poisonmaker’s
    - Praxis: Orcish Table with Fur
    - Pattern: Orcish Tapestry, Spear
    - Design: Orcish Skull Goblet, Full
  - Morrowind Furnishing Folio
    - Formula: Mages Apparatus, Master
    - Diagram: Dwarven Gyroscope, Masterwork
    - Pattern: Dres Sewing Kit, Master’s
    - Praxis: Hlaalu Bath Tub, Masterwork
    - Design: Mammoth Cheese, Mastercrafted
    - Blueprint: Telvanni Candelabra, Masterwork
  - Dark Elf Furnishing Folio
    - Formula: Alchemical Apparatus, Master
    - Diagram: Hlaalu Gong
    - Pattern: Clothier’s Form, Brass
    - Praxis: Hlaalu Trinket Box, Curious Turtle
    - Design: Miniature Garden, Bottled
    - Blueprint: Hlaalu Gaming Table, “Foxes & Felines”
  - Summerset Furnishing Folio
    - Sketch: Alinor Ancestor Clock, Celestial
    - Sketch: Figurine, The Dragon’s Glare
    - Diagram: Relic Vault, Impenetrable
    - Pattern: Alinor Bed, Levitating
    - Blueprint: Alinor Bookshelf, Grand Full
    - Praxis: Alinor Gaming Table, Punctilious Conflict
    - Formula: Artist’s Palette, Pigment
    - Design: Alinor Grape Stomping Tub
  - Ebonheart Furnishing Folio
    - Sketch: Silver Kettle, Masterworked
    - Blueprint: Frog-Caller, Untuned
    - Design: Pottery Wheel, Ever-Turning
    - Formula: Alchemical Apparatus, Condenser
    - Praxis: Hlaalu Salt Lamp, Enchanted
    - Pattern: Dark Elf Tent, Canopy
    - Diagram: Hlaalu Stove, Chiminea
  - Elsweyr Furnishing Folio
    - Diagram: Elsweyr Gate, Masterwork
    - Pattern: Elsweyr Chaise Lounge, Upholstered
    - Blueprint: Elsweyr Cart, Masterwork
    - Praxis: Elsweyr Statue, Shrine Lion
    - Formula: Elsweyr Incense, Fragrant
    - Design: Provisioning Station, Elsweyr Grill
    - Sketch: Elsweyr Cage, Filigree
- Faustina Curio now offers Skyrim Journeyman and Master Furnisher’s Documents, containing a variety of superior and epic furnishing plans from Western Skyrim.
New Undaunted Quartermaster Furnishings
- Two new furnishings are available from Undaunted Quartermasters for those who have braved Black Drake Villa and The Cauldron, and returned to tell the tale.
  - Fountain of the Fiery Drake: At first glance, this draconic accent seems straightforward, but a quick adjustment allows it to breathe flame.
  - Basalt Pillar, Glowing: Though touching this lava-formed pillar bare-handed is inadvisable at best—it contains a molten core—gently blowing on it might just brighten its glow a bit. Try it and see!
New Crown Store Furnishing: Aetherial Well
- The Aetherial Well is available for testing during this PTS cycle. This furnishing can be found in the Crown Store, or in the Services category, under the new Recovery subcategory. When placed in a home, you and your guests can draw power from this ancient relic to fully restore your Health, Magicka, Stamina, and Ultimate.

New Antiquities
There is one new Antiquity to find in Western Skyrim: its Antique Map. Much like other Zones’ Antique Maps, the Lead for this Map can be purchased at many vendors across Western Skyrim, but only if you’ve completed the Pathfinder Achievement for the zone.

New Battleground Collectibles
Three new emotes are available for you to collect in this update by completing Battlegrounds!

Scorching Chaos Ball Emote: Occasionally received as a reward from Battlemaster Rivyn’s Reward Box, earned by completing Battlegrounds.
Chaos Ball Victory Dance Emote: Occasionally received as a reward from Battlemaster Rivyn’s Reward Box, earned by completing Battlegrounds.
Chaos Ball Boom Emote: Occasionally received as a reward from Battlemaster Rivyn’s Reward Box, earned by completing Battlegrounds.

System Mail Deletion & Organization Changes
Beginning with this update, System Mails will now remain in your inbox for a limited time, after which they will be deleted. This mirrors the current behavior of player-sent mail.

System Mails include:
- Mails sent by NPCs (such as Hirelings)
- Mails containing Collector’s Edition rewards
- Mails sent for completing PvP activities (such as Rewards for the Worthy and Battleground completion rewards)
- Mails sent for completing random dungeon runs, such as Premium Undaunted Exploration Supplies mails
- Mails containing Guild Trader purchases
- Mails that have been ‘bounced’ from another player (such as CoD items that have been refused)
When this update launches, all System Mails you currently have in your inbox will be given a timer of 30 days. When that timer gets close to running out, the mail will be highlighted with red text and iconography to indicate it will soon expire. When a System Mail’s timer expires, that mail (and any items or gold that might be attached to it) will be deleted.
In addition, for Keyboard/Mouse mode only, we’ve added headers to separate player-sent mails from System Mails.

Update 30 Prologue Quest – A Mortal’s Touch
The mysterious Dremora, Lyranth, requires the aid of a mortal to uncover the secrets of vaults hidden below Tamriel’s surface. Join her and find out what answers await as you seek to reveal a plot put into motion by the Emperors of old.

To begin “A Mortal’s Touch” for testing, you can choose one of the following:
- Open the Crown Store and navigate to “Quest Starters.” From there, click on Prologue and purchase “Prologue Quest: A Mortal’s Touch.”
- Venture to Grahtwood, Deshaan, or Glenumbra (depending on your Alliance) and look for Rogatus Cinna outside the city walls.

Template Information

For this PTS cycle, we’re supplying two character templates: Flames of Ambition (Maximum Level) and Level 25 Flames of Ambition. Both templates start you in Deshaan, outside of The Cauldron.

The max level template have all sets unlocked for use in the Item Set Collection system, though the boxes of sets are still available in your Inventory as well.
We also increased the number of Transmute Crystals on the templates to make it easier to create gear.
We’d love to know if you prefer to use the bags or Item Set Collection to build out your templated character!

Combat and Gameplay

Combat and Abilities

General

Gaining Resistances for a particular Damage Type no longer grants immunities to its respective Status Effect, and adjusted racial passives that once granted immunities to make up for this loss.
Monsters no longer have a random chance to apply Status Effects such as Burning or Poisoned from their attacks naturally, and will only apply these statuses through intentional means when designed as such.
- This adjustment should help lower combat variance in some encounters, where you seemingly take extra damage that is outside of your ability to naturally counteract as against Overchargers who could apply the Concussed status effect, causing you to take more damage from all sources.
Fixed many issues where abilities, item sets, and passives that dealt damage had the incorrect chance to proc their respective Status Effects.
- In most cases, this was a reduction from 10% to the value most appropriate to their attack type.
- You can find out more about the base chance to applying Status Effects under Help -> Combat -> Elemental Status Effects in-game.
Fixed an issue where casting another ability right after a failed ground-targeted ability could cause you to become unable to cast other ground-targeted abilities.
Player-sourced Synergies will now attempt to cull their animations whenever you activate other abilities to reduce animation errors when utilizing them in tandem with weaving and other ability usage.
- Note: Werewolves will no longer animate when activating player-sourced Synergies.
Fixed an issue where multiple healing abilities and sets that were bound to Area of Effects were not properly detected as Healing over Time.
Fixed numerous issues where certain bonuses could unintentionally apply their effects to abilities or sets.

Buffs and Debuffs

There are now three new Status Effects for the following damage types: Bleed, Physical, and Magic Damage.
- Bleed Damage has a chance to apply Hemorrhaging. It deals slightly weaker damage than Burning over 4 seconds and applies Minor Mangle to the target while afflicted.
- Physical Damage has a chance to apply Sundered. It deals minor damage and applies Minor Breach for 4 seconds.
- Magic Damage has a chance to apply Overcharged. It deals minor damage and applies Minor Magickasteal for 4 seconds.
Fixed an issue where some Status Effects such as Diseased, Chilled, and Concussed could fail to be recognized as Status Effects from sets and passives that stated, “While under the effect of a Status Effect”.
Fixed an issue where some Immobilizes were improperly labeled as Status Effects.
Minor Brittle: Fixed an issue where this debuff could not be applied via the Chill status effect if a target had a longer duration of Minor Maim active.

Dragonknight

Ardent Flame
- Lava Whip
  - Molten Whip (morph): Fixed an issue where the Weapon and Spell Damage from this passive did not appear in your character sheet.
Draconic Power
- Dark Talons: This ability and the Choking Talons morph now deal Flame Damage, rather than Magic Damage. The Ignite synergy now also deals Flame Damage rather than Magic Damage.
Earthen Heart
- Petrify
  - Shattering Rocks (morph): This morph now heals you when the stun ends on the enemy, rather than causing the enemy’s next attack to heal their target. This will also fix numerous issues where the heal belonged to the attacker and used their stats rather than yours.

Necromancer

Grave Lord
- Frozen Colossus: Fixed an issue where this Ultimate and its morphs could return as Damage over Time in some cases.

Nightblade

Assassination
- Mark Target: Fixed an issue where this ability and morphs’ sourcing of Major Breach would be removed if the ability was recast while still actively on a target. This effect will now be considered 2 negative effects instead of 1 – one for Major Breach and another for the Mark that grants the caster resources if the marked target dies, similar to other abilities that apply multiple effects, such as Power of the Light.
Shadow
- Consuming Darkness:
  - Hidden Refresh’s heal now ticks once every second, rather than half second, and adjusted the total healing to remain roughly the same.
  - While this synergy is active, it now displays what it does when hovered over in your Active Effects tab.
- Veiled Strike
  - Surprise Attack (morph): This morph now applies the Sundered Status Effect on hit, rather than reducing the target’s Physical Resistance by 5% if you successfully flanked the target.
Siphoning
- Cripple
  - Debilitate (morph): This morph now applies the Overcharged status effect each tick, rather than applying Minor Magickasteal for its duration. This will also fix an issue where Magickasteal could be removed if you recast this ability early.

Sorcerer

Dark Magic
- Crystal Shard: Reduced the damage of this ability and the Crystal Fragments morph by approximately 2% to match the proper ranged cast time standard.
- Daedric Mines:
  - Fixed an issue where this ability and its morphs were considered Area of Effect attacks, despite only hitting one target per mine.
  - Fixed an issue where these abilities could return as Damage over Time in some cases.
Daedric Summoning
- Daedric Curse: Fixed an issue where this ability and its morphs could cause your next animation to hitch or jitter.
Storm Calling
- Overload: Fixed an issue where the Heavy Attack from this Ultimate and its morphs could return as Damage over Time in some cases.

Templar

Aedric Spear
- Burning Light: This passive now has a 3 second window between each stack, rather than a 1.1 second window, to reduce the cadence in which you must consistently attack with an Aedric Spear ability.
Dawn’s Wrath
- Solar Flare:
  - Reduced the cast time of this ability and the Dark Flare morph to 0.8 seconds, down from 1 second.
  - Reduced the damage done by approximately 21%.
  - Reduced the cost of all versions of this ability to 2700, down from 2970.
  Developer Comment: Similar to other cast time abilities, we’ve taken the approach for a quicker cast time to help make this ability easier to weave within the 1 second global cooldown. This should also help reduce burst, potentially when combined with other high hitting attacks, but help the DPS go up by making it smoother to use and easier to sustain.
Restoring Light
- Light Weaver: Fixed an issue where this passive did not properly grant its stated Armor when you were channeling Rite of Passage or its morphs.

Warden

Winter’s Embrace
- Frozen Gate: Fixed an issue where the damage from this ability and its morphs could return as Damage over Time in some cases.

Weapon

Bow
- Heavy Attacking with a Bow has a completely new reload animation that is faster and smoother than before, with 100% less jitters! The power of a sober mind does wonders on the battlefield.
- Accuracy:
  - This passive now grants Critical Chance rather than Weapon Critical.
  - Rank II now grants 6% Critical Chance, up from 5%.
- Snipe:
  - Reduced the cast time of these abilities to 0.8 seconds, down from 1 second.
  - This ability and its morphs now have a much faster, smoother animation to support their new cast time.
  - Reduced the damage done by approximately 21%.
  - Reduced the base cost to 2700, down from 3240.
  - Increased the travel speed slightly to help reduce the ability to fire off multiple projectiles before the original projectile landed.
    - Focused Aim (morph): This morph now ranks up in cost reduction, rather than 1.1% damage per rank. The final cost is now 2430.
  Developer Comment: Similar to the Solar Flare changes this update and Crystal Shards a few updates ago, we wanted to make these abilities less bursty in nature while helping their fluid usage in rapid succession, making them less potent at combining into deadly alpha strike attacks and more potent while used in a rotation.

Dual Wield
- Blade Cloak
  - Deadly Cloak: Reduced the visual and audio effects of this ability to once every 2 seconds, rather than every second, to make it less obnoxious. Note that it will still deal damage every second.
- Rend
  - Thrive in Chaos: This morph’s hit box now more accurately matches its visual effects, resulting in a significant Area of Effect increase.
- Twin Blade and Blunt: Reworked this passive to grant the following bonuses:
  - Axes now increases your Critical Damage and Healing Done by 2/4% per axe, rather than having a chance to apply a Bleed.
  - Daggers now grant 1.7/3.4% Critical Chance per dagger, rather than 2.5/5% Weapon Critical Chance.
  - Maces now grant 825/1650 Armor Penetration per mace, rather than ignoring 5/10% of the target’s Physical Resistance.
  - Swords now grant 71/142 Weapon Damage per sword, rather than increasing Damage Done by 3/6%.
  Developer Comment: Previously, this passive was too binary in terms of which was viewed as the best, so we’ve made some adjustments to make it more clear as well as more universally helpful. We’ve opted to remove the passive Bleed chance as it was the only effect that could carry over after activating, making it an almost guaranteed pick. Maces also felt too punishing and awkward as they became weaker the more you reduced your target’s Resistances, so we moved to a flat bonus instead. Swords often didn’t scale the way they appeared and seemed stronger than they were, so we moved to a more easily discernable power increase. Additionally, all of these effects now apply to any attack rather than only Martial based attacks to assist hybrid builds and general accessibility.

Two Handed
- Heavy Weapons: Reworked this passive to grant the following bonuses:
  - Axes now grant 4/8% Critical Damage and Healing Done, rather than having a chance to apply a Bleed.
  - Maces now grant 1650/3300 Armor Penetration, rather than ignoring 10/20% of the target’s Physical Resistance.
  - Swords now grant 142/284Weapon and Spell Damage, rather than increasing Damage Done by 3/6%.

World

Soul Magic
- Soul Strike: Fixed an issue where this Ultimate and its morphs could fail to trigger other sets that had “while in combat” requirements if it was your first cast to initiate combat.
Vampire
- Mist Form:
  - Fixed an issue where this ability and its morphs would cancel themselves while falling.
  - Fixed an issue where these abilities could fail to grant proper CC immunity in some cases.
  - Fixed an issue where attempting to use this ability after using a cast time ability would cause you to enter and immediately leave the form.
Werewolf
- Hircine’s Bounty
  - Hircine’s Fortitude (morph): Reduced the Health and Stamina Recovery cap of this morph to 333, down from 666.
- Pounce
  - Brutal Pounce (morph): Fixed an issue where Brutal Carnage’s Damage over Time was not properly inheriting the damage increase from Carnage’s rank up progression. This will result in approximately 3.3% damage increase of this morph’s bleed.
- Savage Strength: This passive now grants Major Resolve on both ranks, rather than increasing your Armor by 5000/10000. This was done to tone down some of the staggering defenses that Werewolves could obtain with little to no effort.
- Werewolf Transformation
  - Pack Leader (morph): The direwolves summoned from this Ultimate no longer taunt enemies and cause them to behave erratically, since they cannot be targeted.

Guild

Fighters Guild
- Banish the Wicked: This passive now grants you 1/2/3 Ultimate whenever you kill an enemy while you have a Fighter’s Guild ability slotted, rather than restoring 3/6/9 Ultimate whenever you kill an Undead, Daedra, or Werewolf.
Mages Guild
- Entropy: Fixed an issue where this ability and its morphs could cause your next animation to hitch or jitter.
- Spell Symmetry: Fixed an issue where casting this ability could desync your Magicka bar.

Alliance War

Assault
- Continuous Attacks: This passive now always grants Major Gallop when purchased at rank 1 or 2.
- Rapid Maneuvers:
  - This ability and its morphs no longer grant Major Gallop on cast since it is no longer necessary.
  - Reduced the cost of this ability to 6426, down from 6885.

Racial

Slightly adjusted some Racial Passives now that Champion Points have been reworked, and a few standards within our set bonus efficiency system have changed. For simplicity’s sake, we have listed the final rank adjustments of each passive, rather than each rank’s adjustment.
Argonian
- Argonian Resistance: This passive no longer grants immunity to the Diseased status effect, and once again grants an equal amount of Poison Resistance.
- Resourceful:
  - This passive now also grants 1000 Max Stamina.
  - Reduced the resources restored to 3125, down from 4000.
Breton
- Spell Attunement: Increased the Magicka Recovery granted from this passive to 130, up from 100.
Dark Elf
- Dynamic: Increased the Max Magicka and Stamina granted from this passive to 1910, up from 1875.
- Resist Flame:
  - This passive no longer grants immunity to the Burning status effect.
  - Increased the Flame Resistance to 4620, up from 2310.
High Elf
- Elemental Talent: This passive now also grants Weapon and Spell Damage, rather than only Spell Damage.
- Spell Recharge:
  - Reduced the restore on this passive to 625, down from 640.
  - This passive now works from any ability used, rather than only off class abilities.
Imperial
- Red Diamond:
  - This passive no longer restores Health, Magicka, and Stamina whenever you deal Direct Damage.
  - Increased the cost reduction for all abilities to 6%, up from 3%.
Khajiit
- Feline Ambush: Increased the Critical Damage and Healing Done from this passive to 12%, up from 10%.
- Lunar Blessings: Increased the Max Health, Magicka, and Stamina granted from this passive to 915, up from 825.
Nord
- Resist Frost:
  - This passive no longer grants immunity to the Chilled status effect.
  - Increased the Frost Resistance to 4620, up from 2310.
- Rugged: Reduced the Armor granted from this passive to 2600, down from 3960.
Orc
- Brawny: Reduced the Max Stamina granted from this passive to 1000, down from 2000.
- Swift Warrior: This passive now grants Weapon and Spell Damage, rather than Weapon Damage.
- Unflinching Rage:
  - This passive now heals for 2125 Health when you deal damage once every 4 seconds, rather than healing for 600 Health when you deal damage with a Weapon Attack once every 4 seconds.
  - Fixed an issue where this passive was not considered a proc.
  - The heal from this passive can no longer Critically Strike.
Redguard
- Adrenaline Rush:
  - Increased the Stamina restored from this passive to 1005, up from 950.
  - This passive now procs on any damage done, rather than Direct Damage.
Wood Elf
- Hunter’s Eye:
  - The Movement Speed and Armor Penetration granted from this passive no longer require you to Roll Dodge to gain, and instead are permanent effects.
  - Decreased the Movement Speed bonus to 5%, down from 10%.
  - Decreased the Armor Penetration granted to 950, down from 1500.
- Resist Affliction: This passive no longer grants immunity to the Poisoned status effect, and once again grants an equal amount of Disease Resistance.

Itemization & Item Sets

General

Reduced the amount of Critical Chance Rating granted per set bonus to 657 (3%), down from 833 (3.8%). This means all sets and passives that granted Critical Rating have been adjusted to meet this new standard. All singular line stat bonuses have been adjusted to this value, while more specific adjustments will be called out below.
- Reduced the single stat line of Critical Chance rating to 657, down from 833.
- Reduced the Perfected ability augmenting stat lines of Critical Chance rating to 526, down from 666.
- Berserking Warrior: Reduced the amount of Weapon Critical granted per stack to 241, down from 305.
- Dragonguard Elite: This set now stacks up to 10 times, once every 0.5 seconds, up from 5 times every 1 second, and reduced the Weapon Critical per stack to 275, down from 475. Overall, this will result in an increase.
- Eagle Eye and Wrath of the Imperium: Reduced the Critical Chance these sets’ 2-pieces grant to 1652, down from 1829.
- Leviathan and Mother’s Sorrow: Reduced the Critical Rating these sets’ 5-piece bonuses grant to 1528, down from 1937.
- Mechanical Acuity: Increased the cooldown of this set to 21 seconds, up from 18.
- Medusa: Reduced this set’s 5-piece bonus of Spell Critical to 892, down from 900. Again, this is higher due to the 5-piece also being focused on a Minor buff.
- Slimecraw: Reduced the 1-piece bonus of Critical Chance to 771, down from 833. This is higher than the normal bonus due to the 2-piece bonus being a Minor buff which you may already have access to.
- Tzogvin’s: Increased the Weapon Critical per stack of this set to 177, up from 134.
  Developer Comment:Previously, Critical Chance was sourced very abundantly and was the clear winner in terms of a chasable stat for end game damage dealing in PvE, while having natural counters and operational costs in PvP. The main source of this issue was the fact that the standard rating of Critical Chance granted was too high, meaning item sets and passives that granted it were out of line when compared to other stats like Weapon and Spell Damage, or Penetration. With these adjustments, we expect many builds to have reduced Critical Chance rating, while also helping tone down the effectiveness of Critical Damage and Healing, unless your build goes out of its way to specifically chase those stats now.
In efforts to combat against the effectiveness of “pre-buff” sets, or sets that retain their effect after activating and unequipping them, we’ve made the following adjustments:
- These sets now require you to be in combat for their 5-piece bonuses to activate:
  - All Halls of Fabrication unique sets
  - Armor Master
  - Meritorious Service
  - Moon Dancer
  - Shroud of the Lich
  - Spectre’s Eye
  - Tooth of Lokkestiiz
  - Undaunted Infiltrator and Weaver
- These buffs are no longer retained if you unequip the number of pieces required to activate them:
  - Balorg
  - Stygian

Crafted

Adept Rider: This set now permanently grants Major Gallop and Major Expedition when worn, rather than granting Major Evasion while mounted and creating a harmful area that damages and grants Major Evasion to you and group mates after dismounting.
Developer Comment: With this rework, we expect this set to remain niche in functionality, but far more beginner and crafter friendly by helping traverse the game world, especially when at lower levels when you cannot attain these buffs easily.

Dungeon & Arena

Dro’Zakar’s Claws:
- This set now grants up to 129 Weapon Damage on its 5-piece bonus.
- Decreased the Weapon Damage granted per Bleed on enemies to 103, down from 133.
Developer Comment: These changes were done to make up for the fact that Axes no longer apply Bleed, and the addition of the Hemorrhaging Status Effect. With these adjustments, the set should now be far less swingy in performance and shine when specialized on Bleed builds with less variance on chance.
Flame Blossom: Fixed an issue where this set did not properly scale with Damage over Time modifiers.
Ironblood: Fixed an issue where this set’s snare could stack with very specific snares.
Strength of the Automaton: This set now clarifies it also works with Bleed Damaging abilities since this is a new damage type, but the set was originally designed to keep the damage type in mind.

Trial

Alkosh:
- The Armor reduction portion of this set now scales off 100% of your Weapon Damage, up to a cap of 3000, rather than basing its value on damage done.
- Fixed an issue where this set was not properly labeled as a proc.
Developer Comment: The previous adjustments of helping make this set shine more when utilized on Stamina damage dealers missed the mark, so we are converting it to something with far less variance and total power. Note that the value is still relatively achievable on tank builds who wish to run it instead, but they may need to run some extra Weapon Damage where they normally might not to reach it.

PvP Sourced

Alessian’s Bulwark: This set now has a cap of 1320 Health Recovery.
Ravager: Fixed multiple issues where this set could proc off abilities that did not attempt to reduce a target’s Resistances.

Monster Masks

Selene:
- This set no longer has a 15% proc chance and is now guaranteed to proc on any non-proc Melee Damage.
- Increased the cooldown to 6 seconds, up from 4.
- Reduced the damage dealt to 11754, down from 13364.
Developer Comment: With these adjustments, we expect lower DPS on the high end for builds utilizing rapid-hitting melee attacks, such as Jabs or Rapid Strikes, while helping it perform better on the lower end with builds that utilize singular hit spammables.
Tremorscale: Fixed an issue where this set’s Physical Resistance reduction was considered a Snare in some cases.

The Elder Scrolls Online Update 29 v6.3.0 PTS Known Issues

Champion System

Tooltips in the Champion Point system are still under adjustments and many will currently display information that is not entirely encompassing of their effect, maybe mislabeled, or will not update their values in real time. This will be fixed in a future PTS patch and is a priority.
Some Champion star tooltips are not reporting their total bonus. To verify stat gains from CP this week, please refer to your character sheet or advanced stats.
Some Champion Point stars may be difficult or impossible to interact with based on your screen resolution.
- We are currently investigating ways to solve this issue, but if you run into a situation where this happens, you can try going to Settings -> Video -> Interface and setting Use Custom Scale to ON, then adjusting the slider until the stars you cannot interact with become usable.
The Champion Point star “Shield Master” is not properly applying to Crystallized Shield and Sun Shield, or their morphs.
- Note that this star currently does not affect abilities that grant a Damage Shield as an auxiliary effect, such as Ferocious Leap or Shielded Assault, which is intentional as those abilities’ primary functions are not to grant Damage Shields, therefore they are not considered “Damage Shield abilities”.

Bugfixes for previous Chapters and the Base Game can be found by following the link here.

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Author

Brandon Adams

Vegas native and part-time reservist who travels more than he probably should.