19.06.2024
ESO Scribing overview – All you need to know to start
The Gold Road chapter introduced a whole new skill customization system called Scribing. In this brief & informative blog post you'll learn what it is, how it works, and how you unlock it. Let's roll!
What's Scribing?
Scribing is a system of spell customization. That means that you can take an existing skill, enhance it with additional effects, and use it in combat after that. Note that you can't just build a completely new ability from scratch – there's always an underlying base ability that you build your new skill on top of.
The skills that you can modify with scribing come from these skill lines:
- Assault
- Fighters Guild
- Mages Guild
- Soul Magic
- Weapon Skills
Weapon skills include even more sub lines:
- 1 Hand & Shield
- 2 Handler
- Bow
- Destruction Staff
- Dual Wield
- Restoration Staff
You need a max level character for it too!
Of course, as most other important systems of the game, you can get the most of Scribing only with the max-level character! If you don't have a 50 level champion or if you're planning to do Scribing on a new one, consider out ESO Power Leveling boost! Our pro player will raise your level much sooner!
How does it work?
You need 3 components to scribe a new skill:
- Grimoire
- Scripts
- Luminous Ink
A grimoire represents the base skill that you'll add new effects to. Scripts represent new effects. And Luminous Ink is the currency that you pay for scribing with. It's pretty much that straightforward. But to give you a better idea of how they work, let's take a closer look at each of them.
1. Grimoire
There are 11 grimoires in total. Each of them represents 1 skill from 1 skill line with the only exception being the Soul Magic skill line that has 2 grimoires. Here's the full list:| # | SKILL LINE | SPELL | REQUIREMENTS |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Assault | Trample | Alliance War Skill Apprentice (Rank 5 in Assault and Support) |
| 2 | Fighters Guild | Torchbearer | Fighters Guild Skill Apprentice (Rank 5) |
| 3 | Mages Guild | Ulfsild's Contingency | Mages Guild Skill Apprentice (Rank 5) |
| 4 | Soul Magic | Soul Burst | Complete the final quest in the Scribing quest line |
| 5 | Soul Magic | Wield Soul | Complete the Scribing tutorial quest |
| 6 | 1 Hand & Shield | Shield Throw | One Hand and Shield Apprentice (Rank 25) |
| 7 | 2 Hander | Smash | Two-Handed Apprentice (Rank 25) |
| 8 | Bow | Vault | Bow Apprentice (Rank 25) |
| 9 | Destruction Staff | Elemental Explosion | Destruction Staff Apprentice (Rank 25) |
| 10 | Dual Wield | Traveling Knife | Dual Wield Apprentice (Rank 25) |
| 11 | Restoration Staff | Mender's Bond | Restoration Staff Apprentice (Rank 25) |
Unfortunately, grimoires are not account-wide, hence you have to buy them for each character that you want to use them with. However, once you've purchased a particular grimoire with one characters, all your other characters will have a discount on it.
2. Scripts
Scripts are the special effects that you want to add to the base ability represented with a Grimoire. You can add as many as 3 scripts to a single grimoire: 1 script of each type. The types of scripts are:- Focus
- Signature
- Affix
Here's more information about each of them:
| # | SCRIPT TYPE | DESCRIPTION | SOURCES |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Focus | These scripts determine the main additional effect that you apply to a skill. It can be addition of damage of a specific type (magic, poison, etc), or it can be an extra effect (like pull, multi-target hit, knockback, etc). Not all Signature and Affix scrips are compatible with all Focus scripts. Since a Focus script is the first script you apply, it affects what you can and can't add to a grimoire. | Complete The Wing of the Gryphon questline to unlock them. Once unlocked, there'll be a chance to get them from these sources:
|
| 2 | Signature | These scripts add special effects like resource resotoration, debuff removal, etc.. There's also a category of Signature scripts known as Class Signature enhancements. Each class has 1 unique script of that kind and we'll tell you more about them below. | Complete The Wing of the Dragon questline to unlock them. Once unlocked, there'll be a chance to get them from these sources:
|
| 3 | Affix | These scripts add well-known universal buffs & debuffs like Force, Main, etc.. | Complete The Wing of the Netch to unlock them. Once unlocked, there'll be a chance to get them from these sources:
|
- Trials, their coffers, and appearing on the Trial leaderboard
- Arenas and appearing on the Arena leaderboard
- Infinite Archive
- Dungeons
- Battlegrounds
- Master Writs
- Capture quests in Cyrodiil
- Becoming an Emperor in Cyrodiil
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3. Luminous Ink
Finally, there's the special currency that you spend on scribing – Luminous Ink. Creating a new modified skill usually costs 3 Luminous Ink pieces, while changing one script costs just 1.The sources of Luminous Ink are numerous. It drops from basically any monsters and any material nodes – but only after you unlock it by completing "The Wing of the Indrik" quest. The quest itself gives you some ink too, by the way. And you only need to complete it with one character for all other characters on your account to become eligible for Luminous Ink drops.
Collecting lots of Luminous Ink requires grinding monsters or resources. The best zones for that are considered to be these:
| GRINDING WHAT? | ZONE | BASE GAME? |
|---|---|---|
| Monsters | Greenshade | Yes ✅ |
| Monsters | Alik'r Desert | Yes ✅ |
| Monsters | Coldharbour | Yes ✅ |
| Monsters | Old Orsinium | No ❌ (Orsinium DLC) |
| Monsters | Imperial City Sewers | No ❌ (Imperial City DLC) |
| Monsters | Forgotten Wastes | No ❌ (Morrowind DLC) |
| Resources | Craglorn | Yes ✅ |
| Resources | Khenarti's Roost | Yes ✅ |
| Resources | Stors M'Kai | Yes ✅ |
| Resources | Artaeum | No ❌ (Summerset DLC) |
| Resources | Northern Elsweyr | No ❌ (Elseweyr DLC) |
| Resources | Western Skyrim | No ❌ (Greymoor DLC) |
***
If you need a video to get a better understanding of how Scribing woks in ESO, here's one from Unified Gaming to help you out:
How do I unlock it?
There's a special questline dedicated to Scribing. You can start it in West Weald. To be more precise, the location of the first quest NPC is just outside the Skingrad Vineyard Wayshrine and the quest's name is "The Second Era of Scribing". Completing it will give you access to the Scribing Altar and several base Grimoires & Scripts.
As you carry on with the Scribing questline, you'll learn more about the system itself and unlock various important elements of it like different types of scripts and Luminous Ink. As you finish the parts of the questline dedicated to them, you'll make it possible for all your characters to get scripts & the ink from the loot.
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That's all you need to know if you're just curious about this new system of if you're just starting out. The rest will come as you learn Scribing step by step.
And if you need any help with this new system, don't hesitate to get in touch with us! We can help you with our professional services: we can assist you with the questline or with collecting scripts, or with unlocking class-specific ones, and so on. Browse our ESO boosts catalog to learn more or get in touch with us to ask your questions!
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