Werewolf - Full Guide

If you played The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, you should remember Companions. They were a group of fierce warriors who could transform into Werewolves to defeat their enemies. Elder Scrolls Online also gives you an opportunity to become a werewolf and feel the power of these mighty monsters.

Werewolves are very strong and gruesome creatures, something between a humanoid and a wolf. Most of the people are afraid of them because of their strength and Sanies Lupinus – a disease that turns infected people into these bloody monsters.

Quote from Official Website:
We want you to be able to launch yourself into a frenzied killing spree and feel the uncontrollable strength granted to you by the transformation. As you can imagine, witnessing a werewolf reveal its true form is disturbing, and it’s certainly an event that will strike fear into those who happen to observe it.

How to become a Werewolf?

There is only one way to become Werewolf – you need to be bitten by another Werewolf and get the Sanies Lupinus disease. There are 2 general ways to get this disease and unlock Werewolf skills:

You need to find Werewolf NPC and encounter him. If you are lucky enough the NPC will infect you with Sanies Lupinus and you will be able to become Werewolf. Such NPCs are spawning in high level locations and you can be bitten only while fighting with them. After werewolf bites you a special quest will begin. This quest will help you to finish transformation.

When I played ESO I saw some Werewolves in Cyrodiiil. I don’t remember exact coordinates, but if I meet them once again I will attach a screenshot here. If you guys know where to find Werewolves - add comments.

The second way to become a Werewolf is to find another player who has already been infected with Sanies Lupinus and ask him to infect you. A player who can transform into a Werewolf can bite another player once every 7 days near a Ritual Site. After you are bitten, you will see Sanies Lupinus in your active effects and you will be able to take a special quest: Hircine’s Gift. This quest allows you to either become a Werewolf or remove the disease if you don’t want to join these monsters.

Take note that it’s impossible to bite a player infected with vampirism. There is no way to be Werewolf and Vampire simultaneously. You will have to make a choice. I recommend you to compare bonuses and disadvantages of each variant and make a decision. Don’t forget that you are not forced to become Werewolf or Vampire. It’s your choice.

Skills

After becoming a Werewolf players receive a special skill line not available to others. This skill line can be found in World Skills tab. The skills can be used while you are transformed into werewolf and can’t be used while you aren’t transformed.

	Werewolf Transformation	Ultimate
	Pounce	Active
	Roar	Active
	Pursuit	Passive
	Blood Rage	Passive
	Devour	Passive
	Bloodmoon	Passive
	Savage Strength	Passive
	Call of the Pack	Passive

Werewolf Transformation skill costs a lot of Ultimate energy and will occupy your ultimate slot. Thus, you may consider the transformation as your Ultimate ability. The transformation will make your character much more powerful, gaining extra stamina, armor, running speed, and attack damage. Attack damage is derived from your max stamina. You can’t use any other skills except those from the Werewolf skill line while you are transformed. You also can’t use your weapons. You become a beast and you fight like a beast, with your own claws and teeth.

Pounce is a great starting ability to leap into a crowd of enemies, fast attacking and stunning them.

Roar is a basic controlling spell that fears all targets within 6 meters. In PvP your opponent will lose control of his character and will not be able to attack you, while you can attack him without difficulties.

All active abilities consume Stamina and don’t use magicka at all. Thus you will have advantage if your character has a lot of stamina. As you see there are only 2 active abilities. That means you will have to deal general damage with your light and heavy attacks.

Advantages and Disadvantages of being a Werewolf

First of all, players receive a special skill line not available to others. These skills make them much more powerful than other players. The transformation adds stamina, armor, running speed, and attack damage. Morphed transformation makes these bonuses even better adding new effects like increased attack speed with every hit and applying bleeding DoT to target. Fearing players in PvP is also a very useful controlling ability.

Such a power increase may influence the balance and that’s why developers made the Fighters Guild skill line extremely powerful against werewolves. The "Skilled Tracker" passive allows all Fighters Guild skills to affect not only Undead and Daedra but also Werewolves. It is unknown if these skills affect you when you are not transformed, but it looks like they do.

The second heavy penalty is that Werewolf characters receive +50% poison damage regardless of whether or not they are transformed. Though there are only few poison skills in ESO right now: Poison Arrow and Lethal Arrow, almost all RDDs with bows are using these abilities.

Other Reasons to Become a Werewolf

Now that we've discussed the advantages and disadvantages let’s talk about other reasons to become a Werewolf. One of the most important reasons is the possibility to transform into a deadly beast right on the battlefield fearing all players around. Believe me, the transformation process looks menacingly and I bet that some of the players will be really surprised and shocked with this.

The other reason is that you receive a lot of roleplaying opportunities. You can create a Werewolf guild or group and hunt other players in PvP or monsters in dungeons. Such a guild or group will be extremely powerful. It’s also possible to make a special sacred ritual of accepting new members into the guild. Do you remember that a werewolf needs to bite a player in order to disease him? This may be used for roleplaying.

Werewolf or Vampire?

As you probably know, it’s also possible to become Vampire in ESO. But you can’t be Werewolf and Vampire simultaneously. You will have to choose. Both options offer exciting playing opportunities and are weak against Fighters Guild skills. But there are differences:

• Werewolves’ skills consume only Stamina, while Vampires rely fully on Magicka and Ultimate.
• Werewolves need to transform to be able to use the abilities, while Vampires don’t have a transformation ability. A Vampire is always Vampire, but receives penalties if it doesn’t feed.