Elder Scrolls Online PvP Beginner’s Guide

Elder Scrolls Online PvP Beginner’s Guide by xXSURUXx

Ok so you’ve never PVP’d before and want to start? Well I’ll try and help you out with this post.

Choosing a campaign!

There are 5 campaigns out currently. If you are nonvet, I would suggest going into BlackWater Blade, a nonvet campaign where you will probably find the most even fights and maybe your best chance at emperor if you are dedicated to PVP and earn enough points. The only negative to this would be low population and not as much action. Otherwise as a nonvet you can still be effective in vet campaigns doing a couple of things which I will explain later. If you are nonvet and do not choose BlackWaterBlade, and just want to PVP(no emperor grind) I would suggest choosing your faction’s buff campaign (You would Home it) where you get almost guarnteed buff bonuses outside of Cyrodiil only and outside of Thornblade. Azura’s Star for EP, Haderus for AD, Chillrend for DC. Once you do this, make Thorneblade your guest. Thorneblade will always almost have action and will get population locked in which you maybe have to wait in a que to log in.

Stepping Into Cyrodiil

Once you are in Cyrodiil, you will be at one of two spawn locations for your faction. It may be overwhelming at first with the new location, but you will get the hang of it. You will immediately get a short quest for skillpoints and explaining a bit of Cyrodiil. Transitus shrines will help you travel to connected keeps your faction has control of. To get out of Cyrodiil you use wayshrines located on the borders of the map of your factions spawn locations.

The Map

Cyrodiil has 18 keeps and 3 outposts. The 6 Inner keeps determine emperorship. I recommend keeping an eye on themap and learning these names asap to know where to move to when the time calls for it.

Getting into PVP

PVP is really dependant on your playstyle. Do you want to sneak and gank? Then you will want to group with a couple others in a small group picking off people on horses riding to the keep of interest. Currently, medium armor bow is the most effective and to get max DPS you must use a combination of skills to do so. With a few others, a coordinated attack on a couple riding to a keep can kill them no problem. This playstyle should call for max DPS and mobility due to how easy it can be to kill you. (you ability to survive incase you are caught out). This style of play is useful to your faction, but it doesnt take keeps but it is more impactuful now with people riding their horses from keep to keep with the elimination of forward camps.

What if you want to group play? Then I love you! Group play means finding a big guild with alot of other people dedicating their builds for the group. These builds should contain AoE (Sap Esscence, Impulse, Talons, speak shards, wall of elements, Encase), Survivabilty (Sap esscence, Immovable, Effecient Purge, Repentenance,Healing Ward, Hardent Ward) and ultimates made for the group (Negate Magic, Banner, Veil of Blades, Barrier, Super Nova). Thes are group abilites made for fighting in a group and taking keeps and fighting other guilds head on. Every class will have different abilities along with those (Which I highly recommend) to add in your own flavor. Having teamspeak or Mumble will be useful aswell. Even if you cannot speak, listening to the shotcaller is whats most important always.

WHAT IS AP?

AP are points used to level your PVP rank, Buy stuff from vendors in your factions spawn location, buy siege, internet points to make you feel better about yourself, and longterm, your position on your campaigns leaderboard for emperorship! Earning AP will be slow in the beginning, but commitment to PVP will earn you some in no time, and friends should always be able to buy you siege in the beginning if need be!

What if you have a bow or a gank build but still want to group play/ Nonvet player in vet campaign and still want to be useful?

Group play means diving into other groups head on. This means you cannot really get in the heat of things with a gank build/bow. Same goes for non vet players, you just wont survive (YOU CAN TRY THO!). Everyclass has an ultimate which is useful no matter what the level, which you can drop. Veil of Blades (70% dmge reductions), Banner(30% healing debuff), Negate magic (stops enemies in aoe from using anyskills), Supernova (30% dmge reduction and strong synergy). These class ults will always be usefull no matter what the level due to their utility. There is one more thing you can do when you do not have ult. Meatbag and Oil catapults! As a nonvet and gank build, these siege weapons will be what make you useful to your alliance in skirmishes and defenses. Meatbag catapults have a crazy healing debuff in an AoE which has pretty good damage and can put your enemies at a significant disadvantage when your group charges in. Downside, can be purged, upside, IT RELOADS REALLY FAST!. Oilcatapults just like meatbags reload quick, but do pretty good AoE dmge and Slow your enemy very significantly in combat. It also currently is not purgeable! People who use these catapults are the MVP’s in my eyese when in combat. They do so much work, just not as recognized as often. So always call it out!

Misc combat tips!

• CC break! – if you are ever knocked down hold both buttons (or your own hotkey for CC break) to CC break it. I costs alot of stamina and around the same as immovable to use. Once CC immune. You will be CC immune for a period of time where you cannot be CC’d again. but you can be rooted. I recommend for group play, to always have immovable on and an eye on refreshing it when possible!
• Rolling! Rolling can and will save your life if timed right to buy yourself a few seconds to live. IF POSSIBLE PUT ROLL DODGE ON YOUR MOUSE. Much smoother and more reliable gameplay!
• Focus on stamina! I dont mean this by having a stamina build but by managing resources. Having stamina at any given point to CC break or roll will save your life and your group if managed well. The only class this isnt as usefull on, is sorcs due to bolt escape, but still a valuable resource to manage.
• Don’t Hold block all the time! Unless you are a tank, have set bonuses which give bonuses to block, do not hold block unless you have stamina to spare and survive with. Once fighting a big group with no stamina, one CC, one negate (CC Breakable) will end you instantly and can decide fights. Kind of goes with stamina and resource management.
• Disease Enchant! Probanly one of the best enchants due to its healing debuff. Similar to the debuff from lethal arrow and beat bags! Chance to proc but the healing debuff is king in PVP. Crushing Shock and Impulse are abilities that can proc it other than just light and heavy attack. Do you need legendary? Nope! Even at legendary, the DPS from a proc is miniscule. You only want the healing debuff which will do more long-term!

Abilites and Morphs!

PVP and PVE are completely different. Some abilites are useful in PVE but not PVP. Unfortunately I cannot go through every class as my expertise lies in Nightblades and Templars.

Ganking builds with bows (general): Lethal Arrow (opener, can combine with mark target, or camo hunter), Poisen arrows, Execute abilties if available, Survivabiltiy Skill. Ultimate being Flawless Dawnbreaker (increases weapon abilities by 13%?) or soulstrike to instagib low targets after opener)

Tankblade for group play: Sap Esscence+Shield Charge with your own flavor of skills, Fear,Siphoning strikes,MageLight,Immovable, Funnel Health and Impale. Ultimate being Batswarm, SoulTether or Veil of Blades!