Preview ESO- Markarth DLC
Bethesda invited us to take an early look at the Markarth DLC which will be the epic conclusion of The Dark Heart of Skyrim chapter in the Elder Scrolls Online. Veteran Skyrim players will feel familiar with this new environment as it represents “Reach” which plays an important role in the Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Let’s dive in and see what you can expect!
The new visitable location in the next Markarth DLC is called The Reach. The Reach is a major city near the border of High Rock. Veteran players will recognize this geographic region which is surrounded by High Rock, Skyrim, and Hammerfell but the veteran players will still be surprised to find out that The Reach isn’t necessarily The Reach that they know off. This place still holds secrets that the ESO players will soon find out…
As ESO players will already figure out that the latest Greymoor expansion contains an important cavern system, namely the Greymoor Caverns. This cavern system is spread out over 40 percent of the area of Greymoor. The cavern system has 4 separate caverns connected by the Dwemer Ruins: Greymoor Cavern, Lightless Hollow, Dark Moon Grotto, and Dusktown Cavern. The Markarth DLC will open up another cavern system namely “Blackreach”. This cavern system consists of a part of the Greymoor Caverns, Mzark Cavern and Akthzand Cavern. These caverns will link Western Skyrim, The Reach, and the area of Eastmarch.
The DLC will offer a new Single-Player progressive challenge called Veteran Arena. ESO players will already taste this new exciting feature because, before the Veteran Arena, there was the Maelstorm arena. These arena’s concepts are pretty much straightforward… As a singleplayer, you’ll have to battle your way through 9 different arena’s, each with a different theme. These different arenas will offer environmental advantages, so keep your eyes open. During your battle, you’ll be able to take advantage of 4 different Sigils that appear within the arena. These sigils give you a temporary buff that’ll heighten your survival rating. The DLC will also offer 17 new item sets and 2 new Mythic Artifacts. After the DLC launch, the developers will also focus on more pets/ skins and new player houses.
The Markarth update will also implement a couple of “Quality of Life”- changes like the utility of filters within your inventory bags. There will also be a couple of improvements with the Crafting Writ UI. Crafting Writ Quests will now show what kind of materials or selections you need to complete the quest. So say goodbye to those long journeys to the first crafting stations.
One of the biggest improvements will definitely be the “Collections”- feature. It’s the new Transmog system that allows the player to alter the looks of his armor or weapons. The collection tab will show all of your collected sets and you’ll be able to re-construct those items for a small batch of Transmute Crystals. The more items you craft from a certain item set, the cheaper these constructions will become. Also, a lot of the quality of these items can be upgraded for a certain price. There are over 500 items to collect, so “gotta catch’em all!!”
The developers showed us around in their new playground and from the looks of it, the Skyrim- feels will pop-up very quickly. It’s not the Skyrim that we know from the Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim but it will definitely attract a lot of veteran players who played Skyrim, just because of the resemblance the game has with Skyrim. We can already tell that the environment is less cosmopolitan than we’re used to. There will also be less snow than we’re used to, this is because of the Druidic Mountains which count as a natural barrier against the draft and other weather conditions. Climbing on top of these mountains will also give you a great overview of the landscape and you’ll notice that there’s a mysterious temple on top of another unreachable mountain. This is the Skyhaven Temple that we all known from previous Elder Scrolls Online games but you won’t be able to reach it. As a player, you’ll kickstart the temple but won’t get in touch with it.
“The Reach” has its difficult history resolved and is now in the hands of the Reachmen. “The Reach” is an ancient place where lots of different people will find their salvation. Around the city, there are different groups who are led by the Grey Host which is a collection of bad guys that’ll gladly see The Reach and all of its inhabitants burn to the ground. “The Reach” is a place you can call home. A place where crafting halls, trading guilds, and other guilds have their own little area. Once you’re familiarized with the rebels, you’ll also be able to pick up some Daily Rebel Quests from The Reach. The city has a nice sense of verticality because of the houses that are built within the mountain. Which opens up the area a lot more than you think. With different levels to explore ( above and beneath), you’ll quickly notice that this isn’t your ordinary ruined city… The city seems to be built on top of a mysterious underground city that’s ready to become explored. The Underground city is full of residents and other NPCs which breathe a ton of life in this underground city.
The player will also get in touch with different Rebel groups like the Ravenwatch and the clan of Arona. The Ravenwatch which is a group of “good vampires” and the Aronan clan will help you out with your battle against the Grey Host. They all offer different independent quests that’ll lead you to different Reach Camps full of enemies. These enemies can be defeated and upon your victory, you’ll receive a temporary buff that alters your stats.
Even though the world feels “living”, the developers wanted to make sure that everyone has this feeling by implementing world bosses. These different battles against these difficult bosses, help us by shaping the world into something better. Players can even become a part of this living world by buying the Stone Eagle Eyrie as a player house.
In the end, the player will follow his scent for mysteries and find him/herself in a very interesting setting which is called the “Dark Heart”. This environment offers a lot of new things to explore: new critters, a new dungeon, special quests, a new dynamically build centipede, a new way into Blackreach, … As you can already tell, exploring is a big part of this new DLC package. You can discover a lot of things above and below, from east to west. Exploring will let the player discover the Library of Akrhzand, a machine that sucks the souls of the living and powers up the Dark Heart. In these underground levels, you’ll be able to traverse the map a lot quicker by using these Void Anomalies that teleport you from point A to point B.
From what I’ve seen, the DLC offers a decent conclusion of Greymoor. It seems that the developers focused on exploring and storylines. Each chapter/ story part can be played differently and you would still know what’s going on at that certain moment. Some player choices will alter their story part and will have other pieces of lore discovered. If you want the best ESO story experience, you need to explore. Each exploration helps the independent story unfold and gives you a lot of lore information that you would probably miss. This opens up the replayability of your character and the new players will be stimulated to explore and make their own choices.
The DLC seems to have a lot of content for our ESO-players and everyone who played Skyrim will definitely feel at home. The developers made it clear that it’s their version of the “Skyrim”-area but with a couple of winks to the Elder Scrolls V. Markarth DLC is free for all premium members and for only 2000 crowns, other players can have access as well. The Markath DLC has been online from the 2nd of November. Download it and go on your own adventure!
