General:Dark Brotherhood Deep-Dive: What Veteran Rank Removal Means for your Character

Originally published May 10, 2016. The original article can be found here.

The removal of Veteran Ranks has been highly anticipated, and we're excited to bring this with the Dark Brotherhood update. Read on to see why we ultimately made this change, and how it will affect you.

The goal for transitioning away from Veteran Ranks was to streamline the leveling process, and make it easier to spread Champion Points to other characters on your account. With the initial release of the Champion System back in Update 6, tracking your power level included both your Veteran Rank and Champion number. Now, the removal of the Veteran Rank system means your character's strength after level 50 is tracked exclusively via Champion Points.

Converting your Veteran Character

It was important to us that the core gameplay experience remain unchanged with the removal of Veteran Ranks. To minimize the impact, we came up with a simple conversion formula so you can understand what your Veteran-level character's power level is both before and after this change: every Veteran Rank corresponds to 10 Champion Points. If you were previously wearing VR5 gear and fighting VR8 monsters, you will now be wearing Champion Point 50 gear and be fighting Champion Point 80 monsters. Gear will have the same stats, and monsters will be just as strong as they were before.

Earning Champion Points

Champion Points will be gained much faster than Veteran Ranks due to Enlightenment and Champion Point cost scaling. Enlightened players gain XP 300% faster, and Champion Point scaling ensures that it will take less XP to earn Champion Points at low Champion levels. As an example, the very first Champion Point requires only 32,000XP, while the 445th Champion Point requires 400,000XP. As progression is now tied to Champion Points instead of Veteran Rank, this means you will progress and wear higher-level gear faster than in the old system.

To account for this, we adjusted the level of monsters across the Silver and Gold zones. Silver zones are now Champion Point 40, 70, 100, 130, 150. As we expect you to be around 160 Champion Points or higher after completing Silver, all of the Gold zones exclusively have Champion Point 160 monsters. This provides an optimal leveling experience for new players, and max-level players have an entire alliance's worth of content to explore and gain full experience in.

Allocating Attribute and Skill Points

Each time you level up, you gain 1 attribute point and 1 skill point. With the removal of Veteran Ranks, we had an extra 16 attribute and 16 stat points that needed to be allocated. Our initial thought was to grant all 16 as soon as you hit Level 50. However, we wanted to make the journey from 1-50 more exciting and rewarding. This lead us to doling out an extra attribute and stat point every 5 levels, and two extra points every 10 levels. This fit the 16 points perfectly and created a nice reward cadence for everyone.

Account Sharing of Champion Points

One of the great things about basing character strength on Champion Points instead of Veteran Ranks is how favorable it is for playing multiple characters. As Champion Points are shared across your account, all alternate characters on your account are able to access your account's Champion Points at level 50. For example, say you have 160 CP on your account. When you create a new character and level them to 50, they will be able to equip CP 160 gear right away!

One-Time Bonus

It's important to us that everyone feels like their investment in the Veteran Rank system is worthwhile during this system change. As such, we'll be granting a one-time bonus to those who have spent hours gaining Veteran Ranks. When Dark Brotherhood is released, you'll be awarded 2.5 Champion Points per Veteran Rank on your highest level character. For example, with a maximum level character you will be awarded 40 Champion Points. If you haven't gotten to Veteran Rank 16 yet, it'll be worth your while to do so before Dark Brotherhood is released to maximize your bonus!

Frequently Asked Questions

We also wanted to take this opportunity to answer a few of the more common questions we've seen on the official ESO forums from players who have gotten a chance to try these changes on the PTS:

Q: How much XP will I earn if I have 400 Champion Points and I'm fighting Champion Point 160 monsters?

A: When making XP calculations, your level is effectively capped at the highest droppable item level. When Dark Brotherhood goes live, the highest item level will be CP 160, so any player with more than CP 160 will be evaluated as CP 160 for the XP calculation. As a result, you will get full XP for killing CP 160 monsters. If you were killing CP 120 monsters, you would earn 75% XP and CP 110 or lower monsters would be worth 30% XP.

Q: Can I get Champion Point 101 or Champion Point 400 gear?

A: The gear cap is currently CP 160, but it will be raised in the future. Gear will exist every 10 Champion Points so in the case of CP 101, the gear level will be rounded to the nearest ten; it will drop at either CP 100 or CP 110.

Q: If I have VR14 gear equipped, but do not have 140 Champion Points, what happens when this change occurs?

A: The system will ensure that you will be able to wear any armor that you have equipped under the old system.

Q: What happens to crafted gear with this change? Does the gear I've already created get converted? What about when making new items?

A: Any VR-level gear is converted over to its CP equivalent. When making new gear, you will be creating it in 10 level CP ranks. For example, to make CP 130 medium gear, you would use Shadowhide.

Discuss this on the official ESO forums.