Online:Vampire

Vampirism is a disease that transforms infected players into vampires: feared, blood-drinking creatures of the night. Becoming a vampire also unlocks a skill tree. 

Becoming a Vampire
There are three ways to contract Noxiphilic Sanguivoria and become a vampire:

Bite from another player
Players who already are a vampire and have the Blood Ritual ability unlocked can grant you Vampirism. The bite can only take place at one of the three ritual sites in the world where both of you must travel to. 

The ritual sites can be found in the following zones:  

Bloodfiends
Vampirism can be contracted by fighting special Bloodfiends which only appear at night. The bloodfiends spawn rarely, and only in select locations in one zone for each faction: Bangkorai for Daggerfall Covenant, The Rift for Ebonheart Pact, and Reaper's March for Aldmeri Dominion. It is not necessary to kill the bloodfiend; once bitten, you can run away, allowing other players to contract the disease from the same enemy.

Crown Store
The Curse of Vampirism can also be bought from the Crown Store for  . You do not need to do the tutorial quest if you take this route, as the initial disease stage is skipped and the skill line is unlocked immediately. If you purchase a vampire bite from the Crown Store, make sure that you are logged onto the character you wish to apply the bite to when you purchase it. It will only apply to that single character.

Once you have contracted the disease, you must complete the quest Scion of the Blood Matron to fully commit yourself as a vampire. As a vampire, you will be considered undead and are thus vulnerable to attacks from the Fighters Guild line when using Skilled Tracker.

Curing Vampirism
To cure your vampirism, seek out Prelate Sabinus in the Mages Guild hall in Riften (Ebonheart Pact), Evermore (Daggerfall Covenant), or Rawl'kha (Aldmeri Dominion). You will be requested to donate a small amount of gold before being instantly cured.

Once cured, any skill points you invested into the Vampire skill tree will be returned automatically. Any experience you previously gathered will remain allowing you to become a vampire again at a later point without any progression lost if you choose to cure yourself.

Vampire Stages
You can progress through four stages of vampirism, but there are various pros and cons for doing so. At each stage, the cost of your vampire abilities is reduced, initially starting at 6% (up to 24% reduced cost at stage 4). Health recovery is also reduced by 10% at the first stage (up to 100% slower at stage 4), and your weakness to flame damage is increased by 5% on the first stage with the maximum being 20%. The cost of non-vampire abilities is increased by 3% at stage 1 up to 12% at stage 4.

Some of the disadvantages can be mitigated, such as with the passive skill Undeath, which reduces damage taken up to 30% based on your missing health. Additionally, some passives are unlocked only at higher stages. 

Feeding has changed with the Greymoor update. Feeding now advances your vampire stage instead of reducing it. The penalties mentioned above apply to this and feeding now instantly kills victims instead of stunning them. The action still requires sneaking, but at a further distance than before—around 10 feet. Vampire stages now recede with time so long as you don't feed. To feed, sneak up behind an enemy and use the command to feed. It takes 4 hours for your stage to reduce when you go without feeding.

As of Update 26, stage 4 vampires will be refused by some vendors, with the notification saying, "This citizen refuses to interact with monstrous vampires." The Mesmerize skill can be used on these NPCs in order to talk to them. Note that you have to be directly in front of the NPC in order to mesmerize them successfully.

The table below shows the various stat changes that occur as you increase in stage:



Prior to Greymoor's release, the time between stages of vampirism was 6 hours, and casting any Vampire ability would advance this timer by 30 minutes. Feeding as a vampire also reduced your vampire stage by 1.

Feeding
Feeding as a vampire increases your thirst of blood, raising your vampire stage by 1 for 4 hours, additional feeding grants you another stage and so on until you reach stage 4 where the penalties are increased, but vampire skills costs are greatly reduced. To feed, you must locate a humanoid creature.  If you are witnessed feeding on a non-hostile NPC, you will earn a bounty and some NPCs may attack you. You may feed on non-hostiles as well as hostiles.
Note: The definition of "humanoid" in ESO is not quite accurate, as it does not allow you to feed on some types of humanoid creatures, such as ogres. Feeding is a simple process. Draw your weapon and drop into a Sneaking position behind your target. Sneak up to your target until you have a prompt to feed. If you do not get this prompt, you are not allowed to feed from this individual.
If you have the Dark Brotherhood DLC, and have Blade of Woe unlocked, you may need to keep some distance from the target in order to feed, rather than assassinate your target
As an alternative to feeding, you can immediately jump to stage 4 Vampirism by drinking a Corrupting Bloody Mara.
Conversely, you can reduce your Vampirism by 1 stage by drinking a Purifying Bloody Mara or activating a Basin of Loss.

Leveling Vampire
The Vampire skill line is completely independent of Vampirism stages and can only be increased by gaining XP naturally. Slotting vampire skills into your active bar affects the speed which this skill increases. For characters who are at Champion level, the "Enlightened" bonus which grants 400,000 XP at a faster rate can greatly speed up the leveling process.



Skill Perks
 

Ultimate Abilities
These abilities must be activated manually, for a cost of Ultimate.


Active Abilities
These abilities must be activated manually, for a cost.


Passive Abilities
Passive abilities are active all the time.


Achievements
There are six Achievements associated with Vampirism:
  

Notes
Update 26 involved a significant overhaul of vampirism and the Vampire skill line, resulting in the removal of several skills: Bat Swarm, Drain Essence, Savage Feeding, Supernatural Recovery, and Unnatural Resistance.
At some point in development, a player vampire would have unlocked the ability to turn a low-level NPC into a thrall who would fight for them. This was cut for unknown reasons. "Can turn a weak minded NPC into a thrall, have them fight for you. NOT CURRENTLY FUNCTIONAL",   .

Gallery
 

References