I was graciously given the opportunity to play the Newest Chapter in ESO High Isle, Early, for about a week, thanks to Zenimax. And in this video I am going to explain and summarize my experience in the chapter. I also got to play a ton of the new ESO Card Game, Tales of Tribute, and let me tell you I haven’t been this excited in a while for ESO. So I am going to go through some brief overviews of what the zone is like, the new volcanic public events, but mainly we are going to talk about the new card game “Tales of Tribute”, because that is the main feature of the chapter, and that is the main concern with a lot of players, so let’s jump in.

The Zone

First off this years chapter sets place in a place called the Systres Archipelago. It is north of Summerset, and about southwest of Alik’r. This is sort of a best of High Rock expansion and it is themed around the Bretons. Bretons are a feudal society and High Isle is mainly home to nobility.

As soon as you step in the zone, it is breathtaking. I immediately felt the feudal and nobility style of society in the zone. It looked sort medieval, and it was just breathtaking honestly. I am always impressed by the zone team and how they create such a great experience. Like y’all I feel like I should sign up for a jousting tournament in this zone. There are castles, it feels tropical in a sense, and I don’t know it feels like you are sort of in the Witcher 3. That’s the vibe I get with the world

Next Volcanic Vents!

These are intense, and they are essentially geysers in summerset, but there is lava, and they are really fun to do.

Fashion

Very medieval looking armor, with some pirate sea themed armor as well. I love the Ancestral Breton style and I hope you carry your 2 handed sword over your shoulder like in Runescape with 2h weapons. But really the armor is very unique and different than others. You can either look coralesque, medieval, or like a pirate.

New Mythic Items

Now when it comes to the Item Sets and Mythics. I am not going to go into full detail on these because they will probably change some before release. But I will just say, these Mythics this time around are definitely unique.

There is one Mythic Item that allows you to get bonuses based off the number of Shalidor Library Books you have collected. You have another Mythic Item that allows you to replace your dodge roll with a damage shield, and there’s another that give loads of resources but only allows you to use one skill bar.

Tales of Tribute

Now let’s talk about the card game, I want to caveat this with we were playing on a 1 month old build so I am going to be giving you my rundown based off of that. But what I will say is this card game has me the most excited to play ESO that I ever have in over a year.

The main thing that I want to address first is the card game is not pay to win. All the cards and upgrades will be earned in game. Which is a huge relief for a lot of people. Some other things to note is this has both a PvE and PvP ranking system. With competitive ranks for PvP, which I am very excited about. Those PvP ranks are broken down into divisions. And there are nice rewards according to the devs that you will earn if you reach certain ranks. You will lose rank if you lose matches. There is also a storyline for the PvE side of things for the card game as well.

How It Works

If I can summarize the card game into a brief synopsis of how it works would be this: It is a 2 person deckbuilding and resource building game. That means that you both start out with a set number of cards in your deck and as the game progresses you add to it by using cards to gain resources and effects.

Now there are 8 unique patron decks to collect. These patrons decks are themed to the style of play of that deck. These patrons have their own icon or suit, and when you usually play cards of the same suit or patron icon you will get combo effects or added effects.

Types of Cards

Now what type of cards are there? Well there are 4 types. Starter cards, Action cards, Agent cards, and Contracts. Starter cards are cards that namely are ones that help you get started in the game, whether that be gaining gold, etc. Action cards are actions that give you an effect that you can also buy with gold from the tavern. Agent cards are essentially minions, creatures, or planeswalkers like in Magic the Gathering or Hearthstone. They have a health and they stay on the field until someone defeats them. Each turn you can activate their ability. And contract cards are instant use cards from the tavern. Now what is the tavern?

The Tavern

The tavern is the shared deck in the middle of the table between two people. At the beginning of the game the player going first will pick a patron deck to add to the tavern and play with. Then the second player adds two more patron decks, then the first player adds the 4th. This is how they balance out the game if one player has more cards than the other. It’s essentially like a draft. But the tavern is then dealt out in the middle with 5 cards. You can buy the cards in the tavern for gold. Contracts are cards that give you the ability on the card immediately when bought. Other cards just go to your cooldown pile and get shuffled in your deck.

Early Game

Now moving on, you start out with 10 cards in your deck, and you draw 5 cards each turn. You buy cards from the tavern and you accumulate power, power can be turned into prestige at the end of the game.

Win Conditions

The two win conditions are getting 40 prestige or getting all 4 patrons to favor you. How do you get them to favor you? Well once a turn you can activate a patron ability, these range from gaining power, messing with your opponents cards, or other effects. That will then turn the patron to favor you with an arrow. Now if the other player activates their effect next turn, it turns back neutral. It takes strategy and timing to get all of them to favor you.

That is the gist of what I can explain for now. When I am able to actually get on the Public Test Server I will have loads of guides on this card game, strategies, and much more content.

I am very excited for this expansion and feature and I am excited to teach you all how to play the card game.

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