During the ESO Direct, ZeniMax Online Studios unveiled what's coming this year to the popular MMORPG Elder Scrolls Online. You can read about all of it here, from the new subclassing feature to the Season of the Worm Cult (which continues the original game's storyline) and more.

Why did you decide to change from an annual Chapter model to the content pass?

Matt Firor: With the chapter mode, we did a lot of great content over the years, but most of it hit in June. It was a big moment and it didn't leave a lot of time for the team to make content over the rest of the year. What it really did is it locked us into this cadence that made it so we couldn't experiment as much as we wanted. This will free us up so that we can put time into doing

things like the Cyrodiil Champions test, for example. Take some time out of the content pipeline and move it into how we can make the game better, how we can make systems that are already in the game better, and what we can do to shake things up.

Will subclassing work with my current character build?

Rich Lambert: Yes. That's the most important part of subclassing: you don't have to reroll a new character in order to do it. You can just take the class that you already have or a character that you've already spent all this time and effort with and roll out new abilities and new skill lines to it.

How will this seasonal pass affect ESO Plus?

Susan Kath: Not significantly, because you're still getting access to the things that traditionally you got access to as part of ESO Plus. It is just a way to group the content over the entire year kind of into one package that you can pre-purchase, so you have access to it all the moment that we release it.

What is your favorite thing about the new Solstice zone?

Rich Lambert: There's so much. I personally love the interesting mix of architecture that we have. It's Argonian and High Elf kind of put together. I love the wall that we've got in there; it's splitting the zone in two. And then, this isn't specific to Solstice, but I freaking love subclassing. It opens up so many opportunities for builds.

Is subclassing a part of the base game update?

Rich Lambert: It is, yes.

Will subclass abilities be weaker versions of the original ones or the same?

Rich Lambert: They are the same. The only penalty that you have is that those abilities cost twice as many skill points to use. That was the trade-off eso gold. In order to give you more flexibility, you have to be even more invested in the character.

How will you balance the FOMO (flavor of the month) with these seasons?

Rich Lambert: That's a really good question. I think what we have shown in the past is with new things that we do, there's always a little bit of that FOMO, but we will sometimes bring things back. We will also make sure that super exclusive things are generally easy to get so that you don't feel like you have to grind every single day of the season in order to get it. Those are the pillars that we're leaning on for the seasonal stuff.  Some of it is FOMO, though. It's a season, it's active; go and play and do the things and experience it while it's there.

Will subscribers of ESO Plus have access to the content pass with their active subscription?

Susan Kath: Well, there's the content pass, and then there's ESO Plus. No, it is not included in ESO Plus.

Matt Firor: Just like the Chapters before weren't included in ESO Plus. There will be content throughout the year that is included in ESO Plus, but what is in the content pass for Seasons of the Worm Cult is not included in ESO Plus, just like last year's Chapter was not included in ESO Plus.

How do you plan on balancing subclassing? For example, taking the Arcanist and using a Templar beam, will that be way overpowered?

Rich Lambert: That was the biggest concern when we first started pitching this. In particular, the dungeon team were like, don't break our Trials. We've done a lot of testing on that and yes, power level will go up some, but we're fine with where it is. We haven't done anything to dramatically nerf things or reduce a lot of power from the abilities. We want this to be fun and we want players to experiment and make cool things.

How are we going to access the subclassing feature?

Rich Lambert: There's a little bit of friction in terms of how you unlock it. If you are someone like me or Matt who's played Elder Scrolls Online forever and have multiple level 50 characters, then all those skill lines are unlocked and the only thing you have to worry about is leveling the actual abilities on your character. If you are a player that only has one character, then you can go through a number of quests and train those skill lines in order to be able to use them. We thought about a bunch of different ways to make this as widely available as possible.