Veteran content in The Elder Scrolls Online is basically a catchy name for “end game” content. It’s what you’re going to be playing through once you reach the level cap of 50. Once you reach level 50 in ESO, you start building Veteran Ranks. You can increase your Veteran Rank through Player vs. Player (PvP), or Player vs. Environment (PvE) content.
Don’t think that going from Veteran Rank 1 to Veteran Rank 10 will be as easy as going from level 1 to level 10, or even level 10 to level 30. You gain far less experience points when you reach Veteran Ranks compared to leveling up before you hit 50. It’s still beneficial to farm using area of effect (AoE) attacks on groups of enemies, but it will take far longer to climb the ranks.
PvP battles can be fought from level 10 onward, but it’s not until you reach Veteran Ranks that things start to get really interesting. For this reason, PvP is one of the highlights of the Veteran Content. For the purposes of this article, we’ll leave PvP out of it and focus on the PvE Veteran Content.
As you play through the main story quests of The Elder Scrolls Online, you’re travel is fairly limited. You are essentially restricted to the areas of your alliance, or where the story allows you to go. However, once you reach Veteran Rank 1, you can immediately venture into two alliance areas. With a bit more time and effort, you can open up the third alliance. Once you have access to all three alliances, you can go almost anywhere you want.
Gaining access to the other alliances opens up a vast array of content. You’ll play through areas that the native alliances played through on their way to level 50. It’s not identical content, as it was designed to be played through once you reach level 50 and open up the other alliance areas. This also allows access to Skyshards that were previously out of reach, and other such items. Crafting takes on a whole new meaning as you can now reach new crafting stations.
In addition to new areas to explore, Veteran Dungeons also become available. There are six Veteran Dungeons in total, which pick up the stories from where the lower level dungeons leave off. All of the Veteran Dungeons offer new experiences and challenges with difficult achievements to obtain as you run through them. In fact, the difficulty of some achievements will have groups of players running through the Veteran Dungeons multiple times.
Craglorn is the first addition to Veteran Content, which will be added at the end of April. It focuses primarily on PvE content for groups of 4 or 12. The main draw of Craglorn are the trials, which will offer online leaderboards for the groups with the best times. These 12-man dungeon runs will be timed, and you’ll lose time for each resurrection (a maximum of 60 resurrections is the currently planned limit). There will be weekly rewards for all players, alongside the special perks for groups at the top of the leaderboards.
At the moment, the endgame content for The Elder Scrolls Online is somewhat scarce, but that’s also because the game just launched. With Craglorn on the way, the future looks bright for fans of The Elder Scrolls series. The developers have already discussed some potential ideas for future content updates. For instance, there’s been mention of horse racing for players who have kept up with feeding their horse throughout their adventures.
The Elder Scrolls Online is a game that allows for a wide variety of play styles, which the development team takes into consideration when designing new content. Not all of the new content will be geared toward end game activities. There will be some content that appeals to players who have yet to reach level 50. We may also see some new additions when the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions of the game release in the coming months.
