User blog:Poisoned apples/ESO: Wrathstone and Update 21 Released on PC & Mac

"With the exciting new Wrathstone dungeon pack and a host of new additions and quality-of-life gameplay improvements coming in Update 21, the year-long Season of the Dragon begins to take flight. Are you ready to brave the dungeons of Frostvault and Depths of Malatar and acquire both parts of the Wrathstone?"

- Wrathstone & Update 21 Preview

As of February 25th, and Update 21 has been released on PC and Mac!

Wrathstone is a DLC dungeon pack, the first part of the "Season of the Dragon". In this part of the story, Tharayya, with your help, discovers the two Wrathstone tablets in two different dungeons, before Abnur Tharn uses them to open the Halls of Colossus and set dragons loose upon Elsweyr, as seen in the trailer.

With Wrathstone comes Update 21, bringing a host of improvements, a new Battlegrounds map, PvP rewards and other features free to the Base game, free to all players.

For a more detailed list of information on everything mentioned here, see PC/Mac Patch Notes v4.3.5 - Wrathstone & Update 21.

Wrathstone
"Centuries ago, an Imperial expedition uncovered the lost Ayleid city of Garlas Malatar and built Fort Mistwatch within the ruin’s entrance. While the fort was intended to protect the Imperials as they looted the city below, a sinister power was uncovered by the expedition, resulting in the loss of the entire cohort along with knowledge of the ruin’s entrance."
 * Depths of Malatar
 * This dungeon is said to take inspiration directly from Garlas Malatar in, where the battle with Umaril the Unfeathered takes place. Now, you and Tharayya must get through the Empowered Imperial soldiers under Meridia's control, her champions, an ancient Ayleid king, as well as Daedric beasts. Should you survive, unique rewards include three new gear sets from the bosses, and in Veteran difficulty, the Meridian Purified Skin. Depths of Malatar's entrance is located on the island of Garlas Malatar in the Gold Coast. You can read more about the Depths of Malatar here.

"Locked away deep within the glaciers of Eastmarch, the frozen entrance to the Dwarven Vault of Mhuvnak has thawed, finally allowing explorers, adventurers, and treasure hunters to enter."
 * Frostvault
 * Battle Dwarven automatons, goblins and five bosses alongside Tharayya to reach the treasure within. The rewards in the end are unique to this dungeon including three armour and weapon sets, and if completed in Veteran difficulty, a Monster Mask and the Icebound Dwemer Spider pet. Frostvault's entrance is in western Eastmarch, north of Cradlecrush. You can read more about Frostvault here.

Both of these are 4-player challenges and can be completed in Normal, Veteran and Veteran Hard Mode. Simply entering either dungeons will get you an Ayleid Crown hat. is available in the in-game Crown Store and can be bought with Crowns, and is free to all ESO Plus members. It will be available for console players on March 12.

Update 21
"In the new Battlegrounds map, Eld Angvar, you and your team face off against your fellow players in the Ayleid world between worlds. You might recognize this location as one you visited during the Murkmire main questline, but this time, you’re using the void’s mysterious portals to hunt your fellow players."
 * Eld Angvar and PvP rewards
 * This Battlegrounds map is a bit different, in that the spawn locations are in the centre, and it has two different maps split between the game types; Capture the Relic, Domination and Chaosball in one, and Crazy King and Deathmatch in the other. Depending on the game mode, areas of the map will be open or closed.
 * There are new rewards for PvP players who compete in the Alliance War and Battlegrounds. These include the Elinhir Arena Lion pet and Weapon Outfit styles for Pit Demon, Storm Lord and Firedrake teams. For more on Eld Angvar and PvP rewards, check out this article.

"Tamriel is a big place, and ESO’s many zones are filled with lots of things to see and do. With Update 21 and the new Zone Guide tool, we’ve made it easier to discover everything Nirn has to offer."
 * Zone Guide
 * With the Zone Guide, you'll be able to better see a range of statistics about the zone you're in, such as the Points of Interest you've visited, Public Dungeons completed, Skyshards unlocked, Zone Story quests completed, featured achievements and more! It can also direct you to the quest giver that starts the Zone's story and display progress for activities and locations. To see all that it can do, in addition to Guild Trader UI improvements, check out this article.

"“The goal with the Guild Trader UI update is to empower our players to find what they looking for in Guild Stores and be informed when making purchasing decisions,” says Bobby Weir, ESO’s Lead UI Designer. “The biggest addition in terms of impact is the new ability to search by item name.”"
 * Guild Trader UI
 * If you can't remember the full name of what you're looking for, suggestions are made as you type in what you're looking for, and you can make use of filters at the same time to help further define your search. For more information on this, and the Zone Guide, check out this article.

"These Abilities have been updated to allow more playstyles to benefit from the bonuses they provide, as well as ensuring each Race has a unique gameplay advantage."
 * Racial Passives
 * Racial Passives have been updated to achieve a greater balance, so you should re-spend them when you next log-in. Reasons for this change can be read here, and an updated list of the changes are found in the Patch Notes (you'll have to scroll some ways down). With this, the number of free Race Change Tokens have been increased to 3, along with 3 Name Change Tokens.

Update 21 comes free to all ESO players, and will be available for PS4 and Xbox One on March 12.

"[...] with the PC launch of Update 21, we’ll be implementing some code related to ESO’s database that will allow us greater flexibility with updates and maintenance as it continues to grow over time. Due to this change, after downloading the patch on Monday, you are likely to encounter a very long load screen upon first logging into the game. This will only occur the first time you log in after character select, and it will not affect subsequent logins. That said, the length of the load screen could vary anywhere between 5-10 minutes to a couple hours […] Additionally, once you’re at the load screen, please just wait until you’ve made it into the game; closing the client will not speed things up." ― ZOS_GinaBruno, Community Manager
 * Notice on load times