The Champion System
What is the Champion System?
The Champion System is the progression system in Elder Scrolls Online after Level 50. The Champion System replaced Veteran Ranks and allows characters to specialize and improve at specific things rather than improve at everything all at once. The Champion System first arrived in Patch 1.6.5 on March 3 2015.
The number of Champion Points that you have is your Champion Rank, so these terms mean the same thing.
Introduction of the Champion System
The Champion System contained a host of significant changes to skills, stats and mechanics, as well as changes to some key aspects of Elder Scrolls Online. The first stage of The Champion System was converting Veteran Points to Experience Points (XP) to ensure a seamless transition to the Veteran Ranks from Levels 1 to 50. Patch 1.5.2 completed the first stage. The second phase was the largest phase and involves the bulk of the new Champion System features but maintains Veteran Ranks. The final phase was the move to replace Veteran Ranks completely and was completed with the Dark Brotherhood in Update 10.
The first thing that that occurred in Patch 1.6.5, which introduced the Champion System, is that the in-game numbers (stats, damage, etc) changed to much larger numbers, roughly ten times what they used to be. This was an aesthetic change designed to help display the value of small bonuses the likes of which will be gained from Champion Points. A bonus of 300 Health is more visible compared to a bonus of just 30 Health, even though the relative difference will remain the same. This change impacted all stats which are whole numbers. If you have started playing ESO after this change you will know no difference but before this happened stats used much lower numbers than they do today.
With Update 10 in June 2016 Veteran Ranks were removed from ESO and replaced with Champion Ranks. This change effected all characters above Level 50 and also all items which were above Level 50. These items converted into Champion Ranks. 1 Veteran Rank equals 10 Champion Ranks.
Champion Points
Champion Points (CP) drive character progression after Level 50. You earn Champion Points by gaining normal XP, so doing things like quests, exploration, dungeons, fighting and crafting. At first you will earn Champion Points very quickly, but as you get more and more the rate at which you can earn them will go down.
You can spend these points on various improvements to your character stats by spending them in Constellations – which are similar to Skill Lines and provide small incremental bonuses.
Champion Points, once earned, can be spent on all of your Characters.
So, for example, if Character 1 earns 20 Points then Character 2 and 3 will also be able to spend 20 Points.
There is a cap of 561 on allocated Champion Points. This means that you can continue to earn Champion Points but you can only allocate 561 of those points. The cap will be raised in the future to allow for further content and further progression.
Enlightenment
Enlightenment is a catch-up mechanic which aims to let less active users catch-up over time by granting more XP towards Champion Points. For all the details check out the Enlightenment page.
Constellations
There will be three Constellations, each with three Signs, each with four specific passive bonuses. The Constellations will “rotate” meaning that you must spend Champion Points in each Constellation at even rates however you can choose any Sign within these Constellations.
In each Constellation there is three Star Signs and each of these contain 4 “on-going” passives and 4 “one-off” passives.
The on-going passives are small bonuses which build up with more CP invested into them. The Points that you spend in these will have diminishing returns and every Point you spend will have less and less of an impact.
The one-off passives are automatically applied to your character once you have spent enough Champion Points in that Star Sign. The first one-off passive is earned after you spend 10 Champion Points in any one Star Sign, the next when 30 Points are spent, the next when 75 Points are spent and finally when you spend 120 Points in one Star Sign you will unlock the final one-off passive bonus.
The Champion system allows for extreme flexibility and customization with many different options and specializations available. The full list of Champion System Passives are below divided into the three Constellations – The Warrior, The Thief and The Mage.
Champion Passives
Constellation | Sign | Name | Type | Rank | Effect |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
The Warrior | The Lord | Heavy Armor Focus | On Going | 0 | Increases your Physical Resistance by 0 - 5281 while wearing 5 or more pieces of Heavy Armor. |
The Warrior | The Lord | Bastion | On Going | 0 | Increases the effectiveness of damage absorbing effects by 1% - 25%. |
The Warrior | The Lord | Expert Defender | On Going | 0 | Reduce damage taken from Light and Heavy Attacks by 1% - 25%. |
The Warrior | The Lord | Quick Recovery | On Going | 0 | Increases the effectiveness of healing received by 1% - 16%. |
The Warrior | The Lord | Field Physician | One Off Bonus | 10 | Reduces damage received while resurrecting another player by 15%. |
The Warrior | The Lord | Infusion | One Off Bonus | 30 | Increases another player's Magicka Recovery by 237 for 8 seconds after you resurrect them. |
The Warrior | The Lord | Revival | One Off Bonus | 75 | Absorbs 10230 damage for 5 seconds after you are resurrected by another player. |
The Warrior | The Lord | Determination | One Off Bonus | 120 | Absorbs 1287 damage for 15 seconds after drinking a potion. |
The Warrior | The Lady | Light Armor Focus | On Going | 0 | Increases your Physical Resistance by 0 - 5281 while wearing 5 or more pieces of Light Armor. |
The Warrior | The Lady | Thick Skinned | On Going | 0 | Reduces the damage you take from damage over time effects by 1% - 24%. |
The Warrior | The Lady | Hardy | On Going | 0 | Reduces Poison, Disease, and Physical Damage dealt to you by 1% - 25%. |
The Warrior | The Lady | Elemental Defender | On Going | 0 | Reduces Flame, Frost, Shock, and Magic Damage dealt to you by 1% - 25%. |
The Warrior | The Lady | Spell Absorption | One Off Bonus | 10 | Restores 3465 Magicka when you take Flame, Frost, Shock, Magic, Earth, or Oblivion Damage equivalent to 30% of your Maximum Health. This can only occur once every 10 seconds. |
The Warrior | The Lady | Shield Expert | One Off Bonus | 30 | Increases the Armor of equipped Shields by 75%. |
The Warrior | The Lady | Critical Leech | One Off Bonus | 75 | Restore 330 Health when you hit with a direct damage critical strike. This can only occur once every 5 seconds. |
The Warrior | The Lady | Unchained | One Off Bonus | 120 | Reduces the Stamina cost of abilities by 80% for 3 seconds after breaking free of a stun, knockdown, fear, disorient, or stagger. |
The Warrior | The Steed | Medium Armor Focus | On Going | 0 | Increases your Physical Resistance by 0 - 5281 while wearing 5 or more pieces of Medium Armor. |
The Warrior | The Steed | Ironclad | On Going | 0 | Reduces the duration of all snare, fear, stun and disorient effects on you by 1% - 24%. |
The Warrior | The Steed | Spell Shield | On Going | 0 | Increases Spell Resistance by 0 - 5281. |
The Warrior | The Steed | Resistant | On Going | 0 | Reduces the amount of damage you take from critical hits by 1% - 25%. |
The Warrior | The Steed | Invigorating Bash | One Off Bonus | 10 | Gives you a 20% chance to restore 437 Health when you bash an enemy. |
The Warrior | The Steed | Phase | One Off Bonus | 30 | After using Roll Dodge, your Physical and Spell Resistance is increased by 660 for 3 seconds. |
The Warrior | The Steed | Resilient | One Off Bonus | 75 | Restores 87 Health when you are hit by a critical attack. |
The Warrior | The Steed | Reinforced | One Off Bonus | 120 | When activating block gain a damage shield for 1254 every 10 seconds. |
The Mage | The Ritual | Thaumaturge | On Going | 0 | Increases effectiveness of your damage over time effects by 1% - 25%. |
The Mage | The Ritual | Precise Strikes | On Going | 0 | Increases damage and healing dealt by Weapon Criticals by 1% - 25%. |
The Mage | The Ritual | Piercing | On Going | 0 | Increases Physical Penetration by 0 - 5281. |
The Mage | The Ritual | Mighty | On Going | 0 | Increases your Physical, Poison, and Disease Damage by 1% - 25%. |
The Mage | The Ritual | Opportunist | One Off Bonus | 10 | Increases the damage of your next physical attack by 15% after you interrupt a target. |
The Mage | The Ritual | Perfect Strike | One Off Bonus | 30 | Increases your Weapon Critical rating by 12%. |
The Mage | The Ritual | Exploiter | One Off Bonus | 75 | Increases your damage against off balance enemies by 10%. |
The Mage | The Ritual | Last Stand | One Off Bonus | 120 | When you fall below 20% Health gain Major Heroism which grants 18 Ultimate over 8 seconds. Can only occur once every 20 seconds. |
The Mage | The Atronach | Melee Weapon Expert | On Going | 0 | Increases the damage of your Light and Heavy Attacks with daggers, swords, axes, and maces by 1% - 25%. |
The Mage | The Atronach | Shattering Blows | On Going | 0 | Increases your damage against targets with a damage shield by 1% - 25%. |
The Mage | The Atronach | Bow Expert | On Going | 0 | Increases the damage of your Light and Heavy Attacks with bows by 1% - 25%. |
The Mage | The Atronach | Staff Expert | On Going | 0 | Increases the damage of your Light and Heavy Attacks with staves by 1% - 25%. |
The Mage | The Atronach | Retaliation | One Off Bonus | 10 | Increases the damage of your next Light Attack by 30% after blocking a Heavy Attack. |
The Mage | The Atronach | Riposte | One Off Bonus | 30 | While blocking, grants a 15% chance to return 186 damage to the attacker when you block a melee attack. This can only happen once every 5 seconds. |
The Mage | The Atronach | Butcher | One Off Bonus | 75 | Light and Heavy Attacks deal 5% more damage to enemies below 25% Health. |
The Mage | The Atronach | Tactician | One Off Bonus | 120 | Sets enemies off balance when you successfully use Roll Dodge to avoid their attack. |
The Mage | The Apprentice | Elemental Expert | On Going | 0 | Increases your Flame, Frost, Shock, and Magic Damage by 1% - 25%. |
The Mage | The Apprentice | Spell Erosion | On Going | 0 | Increases Spell Penetration by 0 - 5281. |
The Mage | The Apprentice | Elfborn | On Going | 0 | Increases damage and healing dealt by Spell Criticals by 1% - 25%. |
The Mage | The Apprentice | Blessed | On Going | 0 | Increases the effectiveness of healing done by 1% - 25%. |
The Mage | The Apprentice | Vengeance | One Off Bonus | 10 | Guarantees your next spell will be a critical hit after you block three spells within 10 seconds of each other. |
The Mage | The Apprentice | Spell Precision | One Off Bonus | 30 | Increases your Spell Critical rating by 12%. |
The Mage | The Apprentice | Foresight | One Off Bonus | 75 | Reduces the Magicka cost of your next spell by 80% after you drink a potion. |
The Mage | The Apprentice | Arcane Well | One Off Bonus | 120 | Gives you a 20% chance when you kill an enemy of opening an Arcane Well, which restores 1187 Magicka up to three allies within 2.5 meters of the enemy. |
The Thief | The Shadow | Befoul | On Going | 0 | Increases the effectiveness of healing reduction abilities by 1% - 33%. |
The Thief | The Shadow | Shade | On Going | 0 | Reduces the Stamina cost of moving while in stealth by 1% - 16%. |
The Thief | The Shadow | Shadow Ward | On Going | 0 | Reduces the cost of blocking by 1% - 25%. |
The Thief | The Shadow | Tumbling | On Going | 0 | Reduces the Stamina cost of Roll Dodge and Break Free by 1% - 18%. |
The Thief | The Shadow | Fortune Seeker | One Off Bonus | 10 | Increases the amount of gold you find in treasure chests and safeboxes by 50%. |
The Thief | The Shadow | Merchant Favored | One Off Bonus | 30 | Reduces the cost of armor repairs by 10%. |
The Thief | The Shadow | Treasure Hunter | One Off Bonus | 75 | Increases the quality of items you find in treasure chests. |
The Thief | The Shadow | Shadowstrike | One Off Bonus | 120 | After killing a target with a Heavy Attack enter stealth for 2.5 seconds. This can only happen once every 5 seconds. |
The Thief | The Lover | Mooncalf | On Going | 0 | Increases your Stamina Recovery by 1% - 25%. |
The Thief | The Lover | Arcanist | On Going | 0 | Increases your Magicka Recovery by 1% - 25%. |
The Thief | The Lover | Healthy | On Going | 0 | Increases your Health Recovery by 1% - 25%. |
The Thief | The Lover | Tenacity | On Going | 0 | Increases the amount of Magicka and Stamina your Heavy Attacks restore by 1% - 16%. |
The Thief | The Lover | Plentiful Harvest | One Off Bonus | 10 | Grants you a 10% chance to double the yield from normal resource nodes. |
The Thief | The Lover | Synergizer | One Off Bonus | 30 | Grants 2 Ultimate any time you activate a Synergy while in combat. |
The Thief | The Lover | Master Gatherer | One Off Bonus | 75 | Reduces gathering times by 50%. |
The Thief | The Lover | Windrunning | One Off Bonus | 120 | Increases your Movement Speed by 2%. This applies to all types of movement. Also increases Health and Magicka Regeneration by 10% while sprinting. |
The Thief | The Tower | Bashing Focus | On Going | 0 | Reduces the Stamina cost of bash attacks by 1% - 25%. |
The Thief | The Tower | Sprinter | On Going | 0 | Reduces the cost of sprinting by 1% - 24%. |
The Thief | The Tower | Magician | On Going | 0 | Reduces the Magicka cost of spells by 1% - 16%. |
The Thief | The Tower | Warlord | On Going | 0 | Reduces the Stamina cost of spells and abilities by 1% - 16%. |
The Thief | The Tower | Ensnare | One Off Bonus | 10 | Grants a 33% chance to reduce an enemy's Movement Speed by 20% for 3 seconds any time you hit them with a bash attack. |
The Thief | The Tower | Inspiration Boost | One Off Bonus | 30 | Increases Inspiration gains by 20%. |
The Thief | The Tower | Mara's Gift | One Off Bonus | 75 | When killed heal all allies in a 8 meter radius for 3300. |
The Thief | The Tower | War Mount | One Off Bonus | 120 | Improves your mastery with mounts, removing all Stamina costs outside of combat. |
Mechanics Changes
The Champion System was actually a complete overhaul of a lot of the mechanics at work behind ESO.
Listening to the audio from the Guild Summit it is clear that the developers want to allow characters to specialize in particular areas and ensure that a character cannot be the absolute best at everything. For example, your character may be a really great healer and and a good tank but will not be able to be completely optimized in both roles. The developers demonstrated this with the Pie Concept.
Stats in ESO – Health, Magicka, Armor, etc – have a “pie” chart which will be used to map out the path necessary to achieve the maximum of that particular stat. The developers in the Guild Summit used Armor as an example. First off, Armor is going to have a hard cap, like every other stat in the game will, above which you cannot go. So if the Armor cap is 35000 then that is the most Armor your character can ever get.
To get your character to the cap involves absolutely everything that increases Armor: Gear, Champion Points, Traits, Mundus Stone, Set Bonuses, Buffs, etc. This should mean that characters can’t simply stack multiple buff abilities to reach the Armor cap – buff abilities will only take you so far before you require other things to increase your Armor.
Here is a pie chart with information from the Guild Summit (which is likely to change) which demonstrates the Armor example.
That is just an example of Armor – now imagine every single stat in ESO having the same system.
The developers hope that this will create a larger gap or separation between the styles and characteristics of players and allow each character to be extremely customized. The developers insist that the changes to skills and abilities bundled with the Champion System will ensure that no one build is the best at everything and that players will have a variety of methods available to reach their goals.
Very informative and helpful. This explains a lot, which was very shrouded at the beginning of the game. Thank you all so much for this very knowledgeable explanation of the Champion System. Definitely going to recommend to my friends.
Thanks! 🙂
So does it mean that if you have a main char that’s VR 14, does it mean that your alt char will not need to level through the VR levels? Would the char hit VR 14 after level 49?
No, at least not at the moment. All characters have to level through 1 – 50 and then all of the Veteran Ranks as well.
What is the maximum amount of CP one character can earn? Do you still gain CP after Vet Rank 14?
If you get the max CP one character can earn and begin a new character, will the CP that character earns be added onto the CP already earned from the previous character?
What is the max CP an account can earn? Can all 8 characters gain max CP and it all be added together?
Do deleted characters retain the CP earned?
There is no maximum at the moment and you continue to gain CP after VR14. All Champion Points are based on the single account so all your characters will have the same amount of CP regardless of which character earned them.
If you delete a character the CP that it gained will still be used as it went towards the account CP so the other characters will still have those CP. 🙂
EDIT: The Orsinium DLC will introduce a cap for allocated Champion Points on each character. This patch is going to reach live in early November 2015 and it will mean that you can have unlimited Champion Points however you can only spend 501 of those points. This cap will be raised further in the future and will be used to let other players catch up.
Thank you, was worried I asked too many questions at once, but you answered everything. Thank you for the quick reply.
I hope you take this sharing points between chars of the game, is ridiculous.
It’s a whole lot of nothing. It’s a way for the people that earned Vet 14 with hard work to lose that title, and have 1.000.000.000.000 useless numbers above their head, it means nothing at all, at least with the Vet Rank system you knew where you were and how close you were to the goal, now there is no goal.
That’s because you have been conditioned to think level number = progress. Just like gambling addicts play cards for the anticipation of the payout, mmo players play for whatever the highest level is. Once they hit it, they stand around and complain there is either nothing to do, or hardly any other Vet players to play with. I’m fine with this change and would rather work towards incremental stat changes than 16 Skill Points I’ll never need.
It sounds to me like you spent multiple all-nighters grinding to max Vet, and now you’re hurt because the bar has been raised even further. You can take your neanderthal attitude back to the cave, and allow the rest of us to enjoy the advancement of 62 million other players to an even greater customisation level.
Are you upset that there will be no “builds” on Google for ESO?
I think I understand most of it.
One thing I don’t understand though is CP Rank.
IE in the Thief Line, Plentiful Harvest requires The Lover Rank 10.
How do you get The Lover Rank 10?
That means just, you have to spent 10 Champion Points in the sign of THE LOVER within the category of THE THIEF. The Lover is a subcategory of The Thief.
Each of the 3 main categories (Mage, Warrior, Thief) is split up in 3 subcategories.
Thanks for this explanation, I understand its a strategic decision where I want to develop to. What I don’t get is we seem to be able to invest 167 Points total to each Warrior Mage Thief, and we get achievements for investing 1200 Points in each of them, how can this difference be? How can I reach the achievement when I cant go further than 167 in a Sign?
The cap mechanism which only lets you spend 167 CP in each line is a new thing which only came out with the release of the Orsinium DLC last month. They haven’t changed those achievements to match the new system yet but this may be fixed or changed in the future. It is also likely that the cap will be increased over time so that you can spend more and more CP in each line and get the achievements in the future.
Thanks Academy, i’ll keep watching changes!
Is there a known glitch where you gain Champion Points at an accelerated rate but they never stay after you confirm them? I’ve gained over 50 Points in a week and my Point count in the bottom right has only gone up 1 Point overall.
I haven’t heard of such a bug, have you spent the CP? Do they have any effect? If it keeps happening you could try opening a ticket in game.
I have spent 12 points in The Lady and I am not a lot allowed to spend them on Spell Absorption which says I need to unlock them at Rank 10. Like I said I have 12 Points in the category. Why can’t I spend the Points to unlock or how do I unlock the tree so I can use the passive?
Once you spend 10 CP in The Lady Spell Absorption should automatically apply without any action on your part.
I recently made a new character and used 252 Champion Points on it. When I checked the charachter sheet, I didn’t notice any difference in my stats. I hit VR last night expecting to see a difference again. My specs are almost identical to my friends who had 0 Champion Points. My question is, do you see the CP in the character spec sheet? Or are the points applied to it another way?
It sort of depends what the CP are in. So for example Perfect Strike will increase your Weapon Critical by 12% and this will appear on your stats. Elemental Expert which increases your damage with Flame, Frost and Shock won’t appear on your stats because there is no stats shown for these values…
Woah unlimited Champion Points.
So if I use a Point to lets say Light Armor defense every character I have will have the same bonus?
And I meant with a Champion Point to Light Armor defense.
No, you can spend it differently on all of your characters. So you could have Light Armor boost on one and then Heavy Armor boost, or anything else, on another character.
Ahh! Ok thank you!
Do your Championship Points only work towards the boon that you have chosen? If I have The Warrior equipped then is that all I’m getting out of my Championship Points? Or all they all effective at once no matter what boon you choose?
They don’t have any correlation to Mundus Stones, if that’s what you mean? So you can choose any Champion Points and they will all be active.
Will we lose the Skill Points we got from the Veteran Ranks when they are removed?
No you will still be able to get 16 additional Skill Points even when the maximum Level is 50. They will do this by adding some additional Skill Points as bonuses at milestone Levels like 10, 20, 30, etc.
How many Skill Points can you put into a single attribute i.e. Mighty?
I think you can put around 100 points into any one attribute.
OMG what am I missing? It says for example Plentiful Harvest unlocked at Lover Rank 10 and it’s green and I have 30 Points spent but I can’t ACTUALLY unlock the Level 10 ability and put Points in it? What am I missing?
Having the same issue as you David. Got spare 15 Points but cant open ability 10. Can anyone help us?
Sorry I should have made clear that the “one-off” bonuses are unlocked automatically when you spend the required Points in the other passives.
The passives unlock automatically once you’ve spent the required Points. The green means it is unlocked, you don’t put any actual Points into the passive.
does the skill and attribute points stop after reaching lvl 50
Yes after Level 50 it’s just Champion Points.
Just so im well informed (i may have misunderstood some info) im not quite level 50 yet but when i do hit 50, will i need to then obtain veteran rank 14 THEN start on champion levels or do i just jump right into chanpion levels?
There are no Veteran Ranks any more so when you hit Level 50 you start earning Champion Points.
I have a question.
I have I motif which I purchased from the guild which requires rank 9 and this was before the update how do I use it know.
To use a Rank 9 Motif you need 9 points into the first passive in Blacksmithing, Clothing or Woodworking. To clarify, Rank 9 is Level 40 in any of the three skills mentioned.
Well I just started this game 3 weeks ago and I’ve been having a ton of fun. I’m at Champion 20 right now, but really the points don’t matter. The game is dope and I like personally getting better at it. In the beginning there’s no way I’d enter a group dungeon on my own and now I’m kicking ass solo. Seems like the people who are hurt over the point system just have ego probs.
What are the best course “branches”to increase spell damage. And does spell penetration increase my damage as we’ll?
Just to get clear with this, I have just hit level 50 and started gaining CP, does that mean I will no longer be getting skill points to upgrade my skills in blacksmithing etc.. I haven’t upgraded in all the areas that I wanted to just yet.
I would like the answer to this also, I’m in the same position with the question…..please and thank you.
Yes, you won’t get any Skill Points for increasing your Champion Rank. After Level 50 you can get more Skill Points by doing certain quests (the main quests for each zone and some others) and collecting SkyShards.
I saw on The Elder Scrolls Wikia website that when unlocking the 10, 30, 75 and 120 passives, they apply on all characters. This true?
“Once unlocked the player will acquire this bonus automatically and across all characters on their account.”
No, the bonuses themselves are all character based and you can get different ones on different characters.
This information is out of date now. You ignore about 50% of everything on this page. And not only ignore it but if you follow it it will steer you WRONG!
Please someone who knows and has editing access, update this info!
Thanks!
What part is out of date?
What is there to do to keep interest in the game? I am CP261.
How do I know what level my character is.? it says Champion 204 but does that mean she is level 204? or level 60 (that was just a random number)
You are Level 50 but Champion Rank 204. Once you reach Level 50 your character earns Champion Points instead of more levels.
if ii have a champion rank 335 character will my other characters be the same hampion rank regarding the new leveling system
Can this be updated to Morrowind CP630 Champion Point System?
One player gets to champion status all of the other characters that get the same constellation perks you’ve damaged well. Or do they have to wait for the new characters to hit Level 50.
No all characters on your account can spend CP independently but only level 50 characters can earn CP to spend
This is so outdated as being not only useless but very detrimental to current CP discussions.
I understand that it’s time-intensive to update it every time the game gets an official update so I would suggest you at least indicate in the main title: The Champion System “OUTDATED”. That would be better for newer players (I’m not but I keep answering questions from newer players who are all confused).
Thank you.
If I choose the mage stone do i get the other minor stone’s apprentice, atronach, ritual abilities that I put points into as well or must I choose a specific stone?
1 question.
Say i allocate 100 champ points to the apprentice stone and it gives me like 2,000 spell penetration, is there also a cap on how many spell pen i get from those points i spend in one spot?
This game is such a waste of time…
The end game content is basically more grinding, as if you didn’t spent 50 levels just doing that.
I just recently hit Level 50 Champion and I’m excited to see how it goes from here. I know I see Level 810s around and that I have a long way to go, but, the game is a lot of fun and has EXCELLENT, immersive graphics. I’m a 47 year old Truck Driver and look forward to getting home each week so that I can do more exploring. Great job by Bethesda and all of the designers behind ESO. Having a blast! ?