Wrathstone is the next upcoming DLC for The Elder Scrolls: Online; the first in fact to release as part of the Season of the Dragon, a year-long event spanning four DLC expansions. The second of these will be the major Elsweyr chapter DLC, but first is Wrathstone; a new dungeon pack containing two new group dungeons. ZeniMax has previously previewed the first dungeon, The Depths of Malatar, and in their most recent preview they turn to the second; The Frostvault.
The Elder Scrolls: Online Wrathstone DLC: The Frostvault Dungeon
The Wrathstone DLC sets up the story which takes place in the Elsweyr DLC trailer which released last month. Players will delve into two dungeons to recover the two halves of the Dragonstone which causes Kaalgrontiid to be set free. One half of this tablet can be found inside The Frostvault; deep within the Dwemer ‘Vault of Mhuvnak’ which is buried beneath an Eastmarch glacier. With the glacier thawing, adventurers can finally enter. Players will get to meet a familiar face here; Tharayya, a Redguard academic and expert on the Dwemer.
“Tharayya is a Dwemer artifact hunter at heart,” explains Mike Finnigan, the Dungeon Lead for ESO; “so when she found evidence of another hidden treasure among her ex-husband’s records, she couldn’t resist. However, when she arrived, she found the caves infested with Goblins, so you are the hired muscle for the expedition.”
These Coldsnap Goblins will be players’ first obstacle to overcome. After that, they will face Dwemer automatons, and a huge machine called the Dwarven Delver; “The Dwarven Delver is an awesome new construct that has a cannon on one arm and a drill on the other,” continues Finnigan; “It’s something ESO players have never seen before, and Frostvault gave us the opportunity to use it as a centrepiece for the whole dungeon.”
The Frostvault contains no fewer than five different bosses for players to face. The greatest of these is the Stonekeeper, which is the final boss of the dungeon. According to Finnigan, players will actually have to take control of tiny “Skeevaton” automatons to get inside of the Stonekeeper and disable its ‘Extermination Protocol’ attack. This involves navigating the automaton’s internal structure and facing its own inner defences. Of course, the Frostvault also features a whole host of new items. There are three new armour and weapon sets dropped by the different bosses. Plus, there’s a Monster Mask set dropped by the Stonekeeper on Veteran difficulty. Players who complete the dungeon on Veteran can also earn the Icebound Dwemer Spider pet.
The Elder Scrolls: Online Wrathstone DLC will launch on PC alongside Update 21 on the 25th of February, in just a couple of days’ time! It will be coming to consoles on the 12th of March.