So this forum is about Alliance War Tactics and I'm going to post on it. Why? Because I can AND because other people might be like me and want to start off knowing stuff instead of doing what I did and just blunder into the PVP zone.
First off, it's ok to be scared. PVP is scary to some of us because it is not as predictable or as controllable as PVE. Eventually you'll have enough experience that when "A" happens you know to do "1". Your heart rate will be low enough you can think things through and react appropriately instead of freezing or trying to run. So, being scared is ok - just learn from your experiences.
When you log into the PVP area for the first time you'll find the air crisp, the camps are on a war front setting and there are many stone fortifications. There are also nodes to harvest, skyshards to gather, dungeons to experience and quests to perform.
Your first few quests are designed to teach you how to fire ballista, catapults, repair weapons and some history lessons. Eventually they might fix the quest texts but you need to ignore the part about teleporting with that flaming pit to the sites you need to visit. That doesn't work. At your first site go visit the shrine. The test fire range can be found by running and once you make it to the second camp, you can get that shrine and use the shrines to go back and forth.
After that you learn about the bulletin board quests. Of the four boards my favorite is are the spy missions. Your quest will send you into enemy territory to scout an objective. When you reach your objective a message will appear on screen and you'll be prompted to click a button to start taking notes. Your character stands straight up and begins writing information. After he is done you are tasked to return to the bulletin board to turn it in. The reward for the first couple of missions is a little over a one hundred gold and a little over two hundred of a special pvp change that you can use to buy siege equipment and other rewards.
Ok, now to the good stuff... or the bad stuff...according to if you are successful or not: PVP
COORDINATE YOUR EFFORT with other people. Yes, I yelled. Why? Because it's important and you weren't listening properly. Now you are listening properly.
In some cases the enemy players are solo, collecting skyshards.
In many cases the enemy players are duo'ed to camp the skyshards and kill you.
In worse case scenarios there are 10-100 of the buggers attacking facilities.
You have a better chance of survival if you run with a crowd. No, I don't care if you group with them or not but you really should group so you know where they are and you can help rescue them or they rescue you. Trust me when I say you do not want to be alone when 12 mad killers come across you.
Where is the action? Look at your map and check in chat. Both will tell you where you need to go. What sort of action?
The major events are around stealing each others scrolls. To do that you have to defeat the forts. Before capturing forts you can capture the resources around a fort: lumberyard, farms, etc...
On the map you'll see icons and an indicating for the forts and above if they are under attack. The chat responses will help direct you to the action.
How do you get there? Any way you can. Run, ride a horse, teleport close then run or ride. Once you teleport close think about waiting for someone to respawn before setting out. Why should you wait for someone else to travel with? Some people might think of waiting along the reinforcement route to waylay you. (shrug) I'm just saying. Even kindergarten kids are told to walk with a buddy.
The fights!! Oh the fighting! So exciting. So violent. So scary! Both attacker and defender are using siege weapons and with the sights and sounds its like actually being in a war. Oh, and damn, if you see a red circle appear around you RUN FOREST RUN!! Someone is about to drop some burning napalm on you and trust me when I tell you that stuff burns a LONG time.
Ok, that's as far as I can take this today as the attackers I was with were repulsed and I didn't get into the inner keep. I died so many times and had to make that trek back from the spawn site so many times I ran out of playing time before the meat of the nut was exposed.
Final words of advice... Healers get targeted fast and some walls do not stop catapult attacks. Be careful!