Consider the following...

SillyGT

I'm fully aware that cyrodiil test are not going to be going on after Blackwood. There is one test that Zenimax should consider, removing all guards to see how it effects performance. Guards in cyrodiil have to do over 50k calculations in pvp. So it would free up a lot of stress on the server. It is just something to consider to see how it effects lag. I'm aware that it would make cyrodiil a little empty until you find a player, but it is some thing to look at.

Kelces

I'm not so sure, since the performance was better before the extinction of deer in Cyrodiil. Not to mention the larger population numbers per faction back then, so there are probably other factors impacting on performance.

JanTanhide

The old servers and the Hero engine don't help. ESO needs a game engine overhaul.

Sandman929

During prime time the guards do some seriously weird stuff. Their pathing seems to be utter confusion as they engage and disengage constantly throughout a fight. They don't seem to know if they're attacking or running away. I was watching the animations closely last night and you can see them change directions constantly.

Chilly-McFreeze

Tiny drops on hot stones. Those little unburdens won't do much in the grand sheme of things. I haven't been around when it struck but after all I read it was the "lightning patch" / the shifting of calculations to the server to prevent cheating that got performance degradation rolling. So maybe they should see if they can steamline some of that. I don't strip tape on cracks in the walls if the foundation breaks apart.

Jaraal

Yes, the moving of more calculations server side to thwart cheating plus the introduction of the Akamai anti-DDoS bottleneck is what has persistently restricted performance compared to before Update 1.3.3 (Lighting patch).

Until those issues are resolved, no amount of NPC modification will have any appreciable effect on Cyrodiil performance.