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ESO Update 50 PvP Veterancy Guide: Ranks, Rewards, and Perks

ESO Update 50 PvP Veterancy Guide: Ranks, Rewards, and Perks

Everything you need to know about ESO's new free PvP Veterancy system: how to rank up, what rewards you earn, and how Vengeance perks work.

Written by
Mostafa Salem
Updated
Reading time
4 min
Difficulty
Intermediate
ESO's PvP players finally have a progression track worth grinding
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ESO's PvP players finally have a progression track worth grinding

For years, Alliance War rank in Elder Scrolls Online told you how much time someone had spent in Cyrodiil, but it never gave you much reason to keep pushing. Update 50, launching June 8th, changes that with Veterancy: a free, account-wide PvP progression system that runs parallel to the new Season Zero structure. It tracks your Alliance Points and XP earned across Cyrodiil, Imperial City, and Battlegrounds, and pays you back with exclusive cosmetics, titles, crafting materials, and the new Vengeance perks. ZeniMax's Brian Wheeler, Project Design Director for Combat and PvP, has stated the goal is to give the competitive community a visible progression path that reflects real battlefield time.

Veterancy rank progression screen

Veterancy rank progression screen

What is ESO Veterancy and how does it work?

Veterancy is a seasonal PvP progression system arriving with Update 50 in Season Zero. Every character on your account contributes to the same track, so there is no need to choose a main PvP character or worry about splitting progress across alts.

Here is how progression works:

  • Alliance Points are the primary source of Veterancy rank points. PTS testing suggests the conversion sits at 1 AP to 1 Rank Point.
  • XP earned in PvP zones also contributes, but at a reduced rate. Testing indicates XP conversion lands around 0.16 Rank Points per XP point.
  • XP scrolls and AP scrolls both affect their respective sources, so active scroll usage can accelerate your progress.
  • Dueling and Tales of Tribute do not count toward Veterancy progression.
  • Each Veterancy season runs approximately six months, aligned to roughly six Cyrodiil campaign cycles.

To find the Veterancy tab in-game, navigate to your Campaign selection or Scoring UI and look for the dedicated Veterancy section. From there you can scroll through all 100 ranks and preview every reward before you commit time to chasing it.

Veterancy tab in Alliance menu

Veterancy tab in Alliance menu

What rewards does Veterancy give you?

The reward pool is substantial and covers both cosmetic and functional items. Rewards include:

Reward CategoryTypeNotes
Outfit stylesWeapon and armor visualsExclusive to Veterancy, cannot be obtained elsewhere
Skill stylesAbility visual overridesExclusive to Veterancy
TitlesSeasonal and permanentSee title rules below
Vengeance perksCombat bonusesStop at rank 33
Tel Var StonesCurrencyAuto-applied on rank-up
Transmute CrystalsCrafting currencyAuto-applied on rank-up
Trade BarsCurrencyAuto-applied on rank-up
PvP Merit MarksPvP currencyAuto-applied on rank-up
Crafting SatchelsScaled crafting materialsContains materials for all 7 crafting disciplines
XP scrollsProgression boostClaimable reward
GoldCurrencyAuto-applied on rank-up

Some rewards apply automatically when you rank up, while others like cosmetics and consumables require manual claiming from the Veterancy screen.

What happens to titles at rank 50 and beyond?

Titles are split into two categories based on permanence:

  • Below rank 50: Titles are temporary and tied to the current season. They expire when the season ends.
  • Rank 50 and rank 100: Each unlocks a permanent title that carries over between seasons regardless of your next season's rank.
  • Season-exclusive titles: Some titles are tied to a specific season and will not return. In Season 1, "Brutalist" and "Sovereign" fall into this category. Titles like "Striker" return every season.
  • Post-rank 100: A repeatable reward activates for players who continue grinding past the cap.
Exclusive Veterancy outfit styles

Exclusive Veterancy outfit styles

How do Vengeance perks work?

Vengeance perks are the mechanical rewards built into the Veterancy track, but they function differently from the cosmetic and currency rewards. Vengeance perks are front-loaded into the early ranks and stop entirely at rank 33. They are tied specifically to participation in the Vengeance Campaign rather than general PvP grinding across all zones.

The design intent is to reward players who engage with the dedicated Vengeance Campaign content, not just anyone farming AP in a random campaign. This means if Vengeance perks matter to your build or playstyle, the Vengeance Campaign is where you want to be spending your time, at least through the first 33 ranks.

What does the new Veterancy rank icon do?

Update 50 also replaces the Champion Point icon on PvP target frames with a new Veterancy rank icon. When you target another player in Cyrodiil, Imperial City, or Battlegrounds, you see their Veterancy rank instead of their CP level. Their lifetime Alliance Rank still appears on the right side of the target display.

This is a meaningful change for how players read opponents in open-world PvP. A high Veterancy rank signals genuine battlefield time in the current season, not just accumulated CP from years of PvE play.

Current UI issues flagged during PTS testing

Update 50 entered the Public Test Server on April 13, 2026, and the official ZeniMax feedback thread surfaced several UI concerns worth knowing about before live launch. These details come directly from the official ESO forums feedback thread for PvP Veterancy:

  • The Veterancy page does not display current or required point numbers on screen. Progress is only visible by hovering over the Veterancy tab in the Alliance War menu, which shows progress to the next rank only.
  • There is no way to see the total Rank Points required for future ranks, making long-term planning difficult.
  • The progress bar on the Veterancy page is small relative to the rank emblems, which take up most of the visual space.
  • Rank-up notifications can fail to open the Veterancy page when clicked, sometimes requiring a second click.
  • Veterancy rank is not visible on the Character screen or Alliance War screen outside of the dedicated tab.

ZeniMax has acknowledged these as active feedback points. The system is still in PTS iteration, so some of these issues may be resolved before the June 8th live launch.

How does Veterancy fit into Update 50's broader changes?

Veterancy is one piece of a much larger Update 50 package. The same update introduces Challenge Difficulty for overland content (with four tiers ranging from Adventurer to Vestige, the hardest offering 600% increased damage taken and 200% more gold), Class Mastery Passives for players who commit fully to their native class skill lines, and a complete Werewolf skill line refresh including the new Fury mechanic and reworked abilities like Gnash and Claw Fury. All major systems are free for base game owners.

For PvP players specifically, Veterancy is the headline addition, but the broader combat refresh affects PvP balance as well. Class Mastery passives are only active when you are not subclassing, which creates a real tradeoff for dedicated PvP builds between class identity and flexibility.

For more guides covering ESO and other games, browse the latest content at GAMES.GG.

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