If you haven't done much pvp and looking to start, some tips to save you headaches early on:
1) Get vet rank (higher is better, but even just VR1 brings your survival odds far above <50) and make good gear, or buy cheap dominion sets.
2) Do some reading and make a pvp spec: include some kind of self healing, run away/stealth/cc. Don't expect your pve build to work in pvp. Be flexible. Use breakout (RMB+LMB) if you get cc'd (doesn't work on roots and snares) - uses lots of stam.
3) Find a group. Solo heroes tend to get ganked a lot more, get (generally) less AP and tend to be less useful except as scouts. Even if all you want is to gank, a small stealth group is preferable.
4) When in a group: follow your leader. Being spread out while in a group is like not being in a group and negates its purpose. If you're group leader, make sure you pay attention to where your group is, how many are healing, siegeing, etc.
5) Kick offline people ASAP so you don't get the super lag/dc from large group bug.
6) Rez and heal people if you can: dead people have 0 effectiveness. Be careful to not die yourself however, it's better to only have one than two dead. Only grand soul gems are usable in Cyrodiil.
7)Avoid obvious chokepoints if you are alone (like bridges on the way to a promised siege). It is a ganker's favorite toy... unless you are looking to mess with them (just expect >1)
8)Commiting suicide by pve does not let you rez at just any place: only at the start WS or where you died. You can only 'kamikaze' by attacking enemy faction or their NPCs
9)Transitus lines become unavailable when all the resources are lost for the keep or when the outpost walls get to 50%. Breaking a connection also disconnects downstream keeps. You cannot travel out of an outpost, only to.
10)You can purchase all siege/repair equipment at any quartermaster (in keeps, resources, at start area). Use them from the quickslot.
SIEGE EQUIPMENT:
1) Dominion ballista: reloads faster than a treb, does good siege damage. Use it when assaulting keeps. ATTACK WALLS NOT DOORS (postern). Postern doors won't take siege dmg but gates do.
2) Rams: excellent for gate knockdowns but highly susceptible to oil. Only use if you can spam purge/siege shield and heal through the damage (best for lightly defended keeps). Obviously only set the ram up while next to the gate, facing it.
3) Meatbag/fireball catapult. Excellent anti-personnel /countersiege for discouraging enemy zergs. DO NOT USE ON WALLS.
4) Oil: excellent for keep defense when the offense gets on the gate or even inside. Possibly unintended, oil can be used on the ground right next to it, which can be extremely effective at keeping people out even when the wall is breached. IT PUTS THE OIL ON THE SKIN... Needless to say, standing in enemy oil is generally inadvisable. It can be removed with purify (templar synergy) or purge (support skill).
5) Caltrops (assault skill): excellent for slowing down enemies that chase or during keep breach.
6) Forward camp: highly recommended for taking enemy keeps or defending key keeps if they are under attack and you cannot spawn there. Try to hide them from the enemy if possible (or spawn them on controlled resources). You can only rez at them, not travel to them and they are expensive: use wisely. Also there is currently a bug where if the camp is interrupted before placed (or for any other magical ZOS reason) the camp becomes unusable and another camp cannot be placed in the vicinity. In such cases it is often advisable to lure enemies to burn said camp so a new one can be placed.
7) Stacking: you can use multiple sieges with one person (use, fire, leave right after, hop another, etc.). Not sure the exact optimal ratio but I'd guess it's around 3 for ballista and maybe 4 for treb, YMMV. This allows more people to gank wall defense, scout the area and kill npcs.
8) Siege equipment takes durability damage if you burn/attack it with other siege AND slowly over time and from being used. There is siege 'repair' equipment but I haven't done the math on whether it's worth it (no room in bags anyway).
There is more nuanced tactics that you will learn as you level up in Cyrodiil but the above will be useful to anyone not familiar with much alliance warfare.
P.S. Before choosing a 'home' campaign, guest on a few and decide on which you like. It costs 5k AP to switch guest and 15k to switch home. Home bonuses apply always, guesting gets you nothing but AP.
Edited by Halrloprillalar on 11 June 2014 17:02