Interview: Talking The Arcanist With Elder Scrolls Online's Combat Lead Brian Wheeler

mmorpg.com:

Earlier this morning, ZeniMax Online Studios released a new trailer showing off the combat abilities of the Arcanist, the new class launching with The Elder Scrolls Online: Necrom next month. The Arcanist is getting some much deserved love from the developers heading into the homestretch as the new Chapter expansion is returning to Morrowind on PC on June 5th, while consoles will be waiting until the 20th.

From new lore drops that highlight some of the characters that players will meet in the world such as Arcanist companionAzandar Al-Cybiades to showcasing the reimagined plane of Hermaeus Mora's Apocrypha, there's a ton to dive into.

However, the Arcanist is a new class that brings a unique combat style to ESO. We touched on how they feel in practice, especially the new combat combo mechanic, Crux, in our preview from GDC. Today's video dives deeper into each skill line, highlighting clearly how Crux works and giving examples of the three distinct skill lines the Arcanist can choose from — or mix and match from each.

The video is narrated by Brian Wheeler, the Combat Lead for The Elder Scrolls Online, and we had the chance to ask Brian a few questions of our own about designing this new and unique class in ESO.

MMORPG.com: Since the PTS has been active, what has the reaction been from fans about the Aracanist, and have there been any major changes to the mechanics since that testing has been ongoing?

Brian Wheeler, ZeniMax Online Studios: Players have really enjoyed the Arcanist! So much so there’s loads of builds and videos out there even before its official launch! This PTS cycle was a bit different where the majority of balance changes went in the 4th update because we took a lot of feedback into account. While there