Wander around Elsweyr—the ancient homeland of the cat-like Khajiit people—and you’ll find fascinating vistas around every corner. Windswept deserts lie on either side of the bridge-crossed canyons known as the Stitches while untamed jungles flourish to the south. In every region, Khmer-inspired ruins litter the landscape and hint at ages past when the Khajiit weren’t as disliked as they are now. You’ll also find exceptional sidequests and play as the outstanding new Necromancer class, and all of that makes up for the fact that the dragon-centric main storyline is a big letdown.

Something as inherently awesome as invading dragons should make for a strong questline, especially when there are also Necromancers and their undead minions running around, to say nothing of an Imperial takeover of a key city that has left the poor Khajiit second-class citizens in their own land. But the way Elsweyr crams all of this in is the root of its problem: there’s so much going on that it can’t focus. So disjointed is the pacing, in fact, that my questing buddy and I sometimes got the impression that the main story was finished before it actually was.

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“ I find Elsweyr itself a joy to explore.

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“ These stories kept me on the edge of my seat and sometimes made me laugh out loud.

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You’d think everyone in Elsweyr would find little time to think about anything but dragons burninating the countryside, but in truth you rarely hear about flying death monsters unless you’re on the 10-hour main quest or hunting their world boss versions in the open world (which are essentially the same Dark Anchors that have been around since ESO’s launch). They come off as window dressing rather than all-consuming threats, and the predictability of their landing spots means they lack any of the menace of the dragons in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Hopefully, they’ll get more screen time over the course of the "Season of the Dragon" – a staggered content-release plan that Zenimax Online says will add another dungeon and story zone later in the year – but right now the colossal beasts are a disappointment.Dragons do take quite a few people to fight, and fortunately, they’re considerably tougher than the Dark Anchors and Abyssal Geysers. A quick tail swipe can fell even the highest-level player around, and surviving long enough to avoid being killed by an all-familiar Dragon Shout can be touted as something of a badge of honor. Dragons drop decent loot and offer tons of experience, but I wish they were more than a repackaging of features that have been around for years. At least you don’t have to spend ages leveling if you want to see the new dragons in a single afternoon; as with the Summerset and Morrowind expansions before it, Elsweyr lets even new players start their adventures in the new zone from scratch.As for the side quests, they’re some of the best I’ve played since ESO’s excellent Morrowind expansion two years ago. Standouts include one in which I had to recruit crooks for a heist; hilarity ensued when each brought unexpected skills and issues with them. In another, I actually felt sympathy for a lich after learning what led to his slide into darkness. My favorite quest, though, involved a Cheshire Cat-like being toying with acolytes at a temple. I even helped someone from a family of assassins discover whether or not his grandfather actually completed his last mission, and that storyline also taught me about Akaviri rituals that are rarely discussed in the Elder Scrolls lore.The crown jewel of the Elsweyr expansion, though, is the new Necromancer class. I spent the entire review playthough as the new class, and it’s one of the best classes I’ve ever played in an MMO. The community has been asking for playable Necros ever since the original beta, but I’m happy the developers waited to release it until they got it right.Necromancy is a touchy subject in The Elder Scrolls world, as its been outlawed by both the Psijic Order and the Mages Guild. In fact, that’s actually part of the thrill for me - knowing that the means I was using to save Tamriel wasn’t exactly on the up and up. Characters treated me differently based on the fact I practiced necromancy - I remember Abnur Tharn specifically vilify the Necromancers we were working against, while walking back his statements once I informed him that I, too, was a Necromancer. I’m someone who appreciates a little Role-playing in my MMORPGs, and knowing that most of Tamriel wouldn’t approve of the way I was working to save them brought a ton of satisfaction as I worked through the individual questlines.

“ The Necromancer feels incredibly versatile and is a ton of fun to play.

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It’s also vaguely similar to the Sorcerer, with the main difference being that its pets (such as skeleton mages) don’t stick around like Sorcerer’s familiars. When your minions do die, they leave a corpse behind that you can use as a resource to either heal yourself or power other skills, such as a lightning area-of-effect skill that fries any enemies caught between you and the targeted corpse. This is always satisfying, especially since you can also use these skills with player corpses. Utilizing the corpses around you aptly highlights the flavor of the Necromancer class - by absorbing those spirits, you are literally sustaining and strengthening yourself off the essence of the departed souls around you.All of this demands heightened situational awareness that kept me engaged throughout the 30 or so hours it took to complete all of Elsweyr’s content (aside from the new raid-like trial, which I haven’t yet managed to beat). Having to monitor both my regular Magicka resource pool and the corpses I left behind helps the Necromancer feel more like a real class instead of a memorized rotation of abilities. It’s also hilarious to accidentally summon your skeleton mage while near a guard or NPC and listen to them freak out in response. This has driven my bounty up quite a bit at times, but it’s worth it.