FYI - The PTS Download for 1.5 was over 13 gigs!

Disc usage after patching:

• 1.4.5 - 34.8 gigs

• 1.5.0 - 38.0 gigs

Source

OVERVIEW

Welcome to The Elder Scrolls Online v1.5, our fifth major content update! We have many new features in store for you.

In this update, weve added Veteran City of Ash, the continuation of the dungeon City of Ash, and implemented our improved facial animations so NPCs will look more realistic when you speak to them. Weve also implemented the next phase of the Veteran Rank improvements, which you can read more about below.

Were introducing both dungeon scaling and solo-instance scaling in this update so you can go back and revisit some of your favorite dungeons, and have also implemented new Undaunted Enclaves and Pledges that you can perform every 20 hours.

Crafters have a lot to look forward to as well! Youll be able to undertake certification, as well as crafting writs and survey reports once youre certified. Youll want to read more about this further down. In addition, weve added the Dwemer crafting style, and Twice-Born Star item set.

Last but certainly not least, you can check out our new chat bubbles, but youll have to enable them first in the Settings menu.

In addition to all the new features, weve gone through and polished the game to address many issues in regards to combat, gameplay, dungeons, quests, and more. Be sure to hop on the PTS now with Live characters from the North American megaserver available and let us know what you think!

BIG CHANGES / UPDATES / NEW FEATURES

Veteran City of Ash

• Join an Undaunted expedition to assault the Deadlands, realm of the Daedric Prince Mehrunes Dagon. Veteran City of Ash continues the story begun in the original dungeon.

Improved Facial Animations

• Goodbye sock puppet mouth, hello lip-synch! We have completed the implementation of the basic FaceFX pipeline, processed over 100,000 lines of dialogue and completed the phoneme creation for all of the races in the game. Facial animations will now synchronize with the dialogue they are speaking. There are some specific monsters that are not updated yet because they do not share the standard human animation rig, but these will be updated in the future.

  • Note: This feature is not supported on Windows XP or OSX at this time, but support will be added for them in a future update.

Veteran Rank Improvements

• We have been tracking Experience gains past maximum Veteran Rank on accounts in preparation for the Champion System. Veteran Ranks are now earned by Experience Points instead of Veteran Points. From this moment on, Veteran Points shall be banished from the land of Tamriel. When a Veteran Rank is earned, you will be rewarded with an Attribute Point and a Skill Point.

• Reduced the amount of Health, Magicka, and Stamina rewarded on a Veteran Rank gain by 35% to compensate for the new Attribute Points rewarded.

• It takes 1,432,550 Experience Points to gain a Veteran Rank. We expect this to greatly reduce the amount of time it takes to gain a Veteran Rank.

Dungeon Scaling

• Dungeons will now scale to the level of the group leader, with some caveats:

  • Non-veteran dungeons will not scale below the level they are currently introduced, but will scale up to Veteran Rank 12.
  • All veteran dungeons (with the exception of Veteran City of Ash) are now available from Veteran Rank 1 to Veteran Rank 12.
  • Dungeons will not scale up to Veteran Rank 13 and 14 at this time.
  • Dungeon scaling is determined by the group leader upon the group entering the dungeon. This scaling does not change if the level of the group leader does, or if the group leader changes, once the dungeon has been set.

  • Item drops will also scale up either to the level of the monster or the receiving player character, whichever is lower.

    • For example, a level 28 monster is defeated, dropping an item for a level 26 player character and a level 30 player character. The item levels will be 26 and 28, respectively.

Solo Scaling

• Solo instances will now scale to your level, with some caveats:

  • Solo instances do not scale below the level they are introduced. For example, Thizzrini Arena begins scaling from level 42.
  • Solo instances do not scale past Veteran Rank 12 at this time.
  • Solo scaling is determined by your level upon entering the instance, and remains there for the session.

Undaunted Enclaves and Pledges

• Undaunted at the Enclaves are welcoming new members. Follow the invitation to the Enclave to join up.

• The Undaunted have established Enclaves near the capitals of each alliance. They invite adventurers to join them in the spoils of dungeon conquest.

  • At these locations, members of the Undaunted may acquire quests known as Pledges which will send you into various dungeons to defeat the enemies within.

    • Note: Each type of pledge may be performed every 20 hours.

  • There are two types of Pledges available which will send you into veteran and non-veteran dungeons respectively.

  • Non-veteran Pledges become available at level 45, and Veteran Pledges unlock at Veteran Rank 1.

  • Successfully completing a Pledge results in a key, the quality of which is determined by both the type of Pledge and whether optional objectives have been fulfilled.

  • These keys are used to open chests at the Undaunted Enclaves for a chance at various special rewards, including unique item sets and more.

  • Undaunted Enclaves also include Undaunted Quartermasters, who carry a stock of general goods particularly useful for dungeoneering adventurers.

Crafting Certification, Writs and Survey Reports

• You can now undertake certification to learn the basics of the various tradeskills, as well as to unlock Crafting Writ quests from your respective alliances.

• Visit the towns of Vulkhel Guard, Davons Watch or Daggerfall and look for newly hired crafting trainers for certification. To assist in finding them, all Writ Boards will also direct you to these trainers.

  • Note: Talented crafters will have the option to fast-track their certification application.

• Once certified, you can acquire Crafting Writ contracts from newly constructed Writ Boards placed in every major city. The types of items needed for each Writ are appropriate to your approximate skill level in the relevant discipline, asking you to create specific goods, and deliver them to locations in need of these supplies.

• Note: Crafting Writs may be performed every 20 hours, and are available for every tier of crafting.

• In addition to inspiration gained from completing these quests, you will receive a package containing various materials in recognition of your contribution. There is a chance that these will, for most tradeskills, include a Survey Report. Survey Reports are similar to treasure maps in that they lead you to caches of valuable items, which in this case are clusters of high-yield harvest nodes, exclusively available to you if you possess the Survey Report.

New Crafting Style: Dwemer

• The secrets of crafting Dwemer equipment have begun to be recovered. Those searching Dwemer ruins may find lost chapters detailing the construction of specific types of equipment, and if you are extremely lucky, may find an intact book detailing every aspect of Dwemer armor and weapon construction.

• The crafting style component will require you to collect Dwemer scrap metal from automatons, and refine it into a Dwemer frame item.

New Crafted Item Set: Twice-Born Star

• If you have researched 9 traits in a given item type, you will be able to craft items in the Twice-Born Star item set. When worn in at least five different item slots, this item set will allow you to receive two different mundus stones buffs. The crafting stations for this item set are located in Upper Craglorn.

Chat Bubbles

• Chat bubbles are now in beta and available for you to try! These are off by default. To turn them on, go to the Settings menu. Scroll to the bottom of the Interface tab, and youll see different options for chat bubbles.

Delves Updates

• The delves found in Alikr Desert, Eastmarch and Malabal Tor are now larger, and contain more monsters and loot. This is an ongoing effort to make all delves in the game larger.

• One low-level Delve in each Alliance was also made larger:

  • Auridon: Dels Claim
  • Glenumbra: Crypt Watch
  • Stonefalls: Emberflint Mine

FIXES & IMPROVEMENTS

Alliance War

General

• You now need to be at least Alliance Rank 6 to purchase Forward Camps.

• All buffs received from Campaigns will be local to the Campaign you're physically located in while in Cyrodiil. When outside of Cyrodiil, your Home Campaign buffs will be applied.

Art & Animation

Animations

• Fixed a clipping issue with hooded headpieces on character models.

• Fixed an issue with several non-playable characters hair, including Captain Vistra, the Nereid, and the Noble.

• Fixed an issue with shoulder and torso clipping on character models.

(continued in comments)