An exciting new update is coming to Elder Scrolls Online, bringing a lot of changes to a specific aspect of the game. ESO Vampirism is going to be subjected to an update later this month, releasing on May 26th. With the exception of a few balance alterations here and there, the Vampire part of the title hasn’t seen much attention. This is all about to change.

In this article, we will showcase the following:

• New abilities
• The four stages of Vampirism
• Advantages of increasing stage
• Disadvantages of increasing stage
• What happens if you are recognized as a vampire in ESO

With that in mind, let’s take a look at what you can expect with the next update to Vampirism.

New Abilities for ESO Vampires

Firstly, there will be a number of new changes coming to the skill line, with new abilities and updates to existing ones. The ultimate goal of the new update is to make the use of Vampires more engaging. Which will become apparent with the new overhaul. One of the new abilities that will be introduced is known as Eviscerate. This will be a spammable ability that dishes out more damage depending on how much health you are missing. Another ability, called Blood Frenzy, will increase your weapon and spell damage whilst draining your own health.

There is also a new ultimate ability called Blood Scion. This will transform your character into a formidable beast, which will increase your health, stamina and magicka. You will also have other abilities such as being able to see through walls and heal yourself whilst dealing damage at the same time.

The Four Stages of ESO Vampirism

For those who may be unfamiliar, Vampirism is a disease in ESO that will have a number of different effects on your character. This includes changes to appearance, resistances and includes a new skill tree. You can be infected by other vampire characters, though not all have the ability to infect you. Only vampires that congregate in regions of the last questline for each alliance can infect, or alternatively you can allow another player afflicted by Vampirism to feed upon you.

This aspect will be highlighted with the new update, as the team look to alter the way you manage the four stages. Your stage increases by feasting upon your enemies, which decreases over time. So you’ll see reductions in health recovery, though there is increases in flame damage and cost to non-vampire abilities.

There are benefits and drawbacks to levelling up Vampirism, and there are different variables for each stage.

Stage 1 – ESO Vampirism

Starting with Stage 1, there isn’t any changes to your gameplay, with no advantages or disadvantages. It’s ultimately based on health recovery, fire damage, ability cost, and activating passives. So at the first stage, these will all sit at 0%, with no active passives.

Stage 2 – ESO Vampirism

Stage 2 takes away 50% health recovery, as well as 7% of ability cost. It does activate Supernatural Recovery, and increases your fire damage by 15%.

Stage 3 – ESO Vampirism

By reaching Stage 3, your fire damage is increased to 20%, and ability cost is up to -14%. There is also the Undeath ability which is also made active.

Stage 4 – ESO Vampirism

Finally, Stage 4 sees health recovery at -75%, with -21% ability cost and Dark Stalker being active.

Advantages of Increasing Stages for an ESO Vampire

There are some benefits to Vampirism, in both PvE and PvP circumstances. Starting with the former, levelling up to level 3 unlocks the Undeath passive, which comes in very handy because it reduces the damage that you take based on your missing health when it dips below 50%. There is also the increase of stamina and magicka recovery from using Supernatural Recovery when reaching Stage 2.

As for PvP, the use of Undeath once again comes in handy, especially for support characters. It can have a very beneficial effect when used with abilities such as Remembrance and Enchanted Forest. You also have the consumption life force ability with Invigorating Drain, which is a stun tool that cannot be evaded. There is other damage reducing abilities, like Mist Form which sees you taking 75% less damage, which can be extremely useful if you need to escape a dire situation.

Disadvantages of Increasing Stages for an ESO Vampire

There are also downsides of increasing your vampire stage, which again applies to both PvE and PvP. As far as PvE goes, the biggest drawback is the increasing fire damage that you take when levelling up. As you may have noticed, ESO is littered with enemies that are capable of dealing fire damage. This means that you will often have to try and gauge whether or not you are heading into an area that will be causing you a lot of fire damage, though that in itself is no easy task at times.

The increase of fire damage is perhaps even more of a disadvantage in the PvP sector of the game. Coming across anything that has exclusive fire damage, such as a Magicka Dragonknight, then you could be in for a really rough time. There is also the Skilled Tracker passive, which increases damage for Fighters Guild against you. Enemies in PvP could also use a Prismatic Glyph that dishes out 7145 magic damage to vampires, which is nearly double that of any Glyph in ESO. So levelling up can set you back in a number of ways, so be wary before doing so.

So as you can see, there are perks to levelling up Vampirism with a taking less damage, but it is countered with the downside of the potential fire damage that you can take.

Being Recognized as a Vampire in ESO

A common gripe with being a vampire for many players is that there isn’t all that much recognition of being a vampire. With the exception of a few quests, there is a lack of immersion when interacting with other characters of the same nature, who may recognize you as human even in a vampiric state.

This is something that the team behind ESO are working on for next week’s update. Within the overhaul on May 26th, there will be more of a consequence introduced by becoming a vampire. The dwellers of Tamriel will now react to Vampirism in a number of ways. For example, using vampiric abilities in public settings can lead to a bounty being put on you. If you have reached Stage 4 Vampirism, then you could see changes such as NPCs refusing to deal with you due to your affliction, so you can expect to see justice reactions being triggered by the townsfolk.

This will be music to the ears of the players who want to be acknowledged as a vampire. What’s more, the feeding animations are being worked on, so you can expect to see a cutscene each time you feast upon your victim.

Endnote

Being a vampire in ESO comes with its own set of challenges and really shakes up the gameplay. The new update will drop next week on May 26th on PC, as ESO Vampirism looks to be making a much bigger impact on the game than it ever has done before. If you are playing the game on Xbox One or PS4, then you will have to wait slightly longer, with a release date set for June 9th. This update is free for all ESO players, arriving with the introduction of The Elder Scrolls Online: Greymoor.