Elder Scrolls Online: Craglorn’s 12-player Trials detailed

One of the major features in The Elder Scrolls Online's upcoming content expansion, Craglorn, is the addition of Trials. These 12-man veteran PvE systems are designed "for the best of the best," not only challenge you with tought monsters and bosses, but implementing a leaderboard that will track how quickly your group completes the trial. In a rather lengthy blog post today, ZeniMax revealed a few more specifics about Trials.

"One of the first things you’ll notice about Trials is that they bring a new experience to ESO designed to test even the toughest veterans," ZeniMax said. "You’ll need a group of 12 to take them on, but they’re not just dungeons that require a large group—we’re applying additional pressure. Your team will only have a limited number of resurrections available, and additional rewards will be granted to those who defeat the weekly challenge with one of the top times across the megaserver."

Despite the difficulty of each challenge, ESO's flexible skill system creates some "interesting" situations for Trial Groups. "For instance, there may be encounters that require a heavy burn phase where everyone needs to contribute high damage in a short period of time," ZeniMax explained. "We can also force groups to deal with extreme incoming damage. In these situations, additional healing and damage reduction skills might be necessary for everyone."

To help you learn, Craglorn will also implement a new death recap. Any time you are defeated (even outside of Trials), you'll receive a recap screen detailing the last several sources of damage you received, along with a variety of tips that will help you better understand your death.

Trials also don't have a lockout, meaning your group and take on the challenge as often as you want, and you'll still receive items throughout. However, there are a few other limitations in place.

"You can earn the very best loot—special set pieces that only drop from the final bosses—once a week, and those with the top 100 completion times during the week can earn another piece of loot from the weekly Trial (selected at random from available Trials). It’s important to note that you won’t be required to finish the Trial within a time limit; you may run out of resurrections and have to start over, but your completion time only matters with regards to the leaderboard and bonus loot (the same kinds of loot you can receive once weekly for defeating the whole Trial)."

A single trial should take "about an hour to an hour-and-a-half" to complete with an experienced group. Of course, you'll always want to strive for faster completions to earn more loot.

[ESO]