[NA] Blackwater Blade

Magister_Aena

The official thread for the nonveteran campaign.

It's a very fun campaign so far, just wish ZOS had turned down the NPCs from veteran five so it could truly be nonveteran. I escaped to Blackwater Blade to stop seeing shields by names and they're still everywhere

Also, finding it funny how many subvets are nightblades. Think there's more nightblades on the Blade than on any other campaign

Cody

NPC guards are VR5 in that campaign? dang. that must suck for you guys:( will suck for me when I send my lvl 25 DK there

kijima

What the? Vet 5 eh? Havent sen't my alt's there yet although that's the plan.

In the patch notes for 1.3.3 it also talks about the tower mage having further range and healers having more grunt, I hope this also has not be introduced to non-vet Cyrodiil.

You'll basically need a zerg just to take out a resource and not a strategic 4 man team as it should be.

Rylana

Tried three campaigns today, BB is the most competitive of them all, amazingly.

dcincali

Everyone dies in oil or gets murdered by the npcs. Its rather amusing.

Magister_Aena

If it takes an entire day for one faction to get a keep on this campaign, no one is ever going to get emperorship. ZOS, please change the NPCs.

Also, loving how many of my fellow AD turned traitor and joined EP with me, lol. This new campaign is going to be fun.

Halrloprillalar

I'm simply spying for my queen

frwinters_ESO

Remember your stats are boosted to to be equal to the enemy, so they should be ok to kill. Only disadvantage vould be less passives and skills to use in PvP/

Tamanous

Every single mmo in the history of this world that has pre-level cap pvp offers the most fun in pvp. Designers really need to too look into why this is. Answer is simple: Pvp demands equality. The moment level and gear make all the difference is the moment pvp fails.

Competition is what makes pvp fun. For this to happen everyone needs to be the exact same power level. Early level pvp with bolster usually offers the greatest equality and is the most fun. Many other mmos add pvp stats which further separates newer players from vet players making pvp even less fun and a grind. ZOS has a chance to keep pvp in this game fun. I hope they don't blow it.

The way ZOS can obliterate this is to add an option to turn off xp gain. If this occurs pre-vet pvp will turn into a tweaking competition and BB campaign will fail.

The second I read about this change months ago I posted how fantastic this will be. Pvp in mmos should never, ever, EVER be about gear grind and extreme power curves. It should have no grind to participate. The systems should simply be fun enough to keep wanting to play. Rewards should be a direct result of campaign progress and NOT personal grind goals. There will always be players vastly superior in skill over others and additional power curves through mechanics alone should not impact pvp much. Vet level pvp now needs to be looked into further for balance.

Not that this is directly at ZOS but in general I wish developers would STOP looking at Wow for pvp mechanics. Wow failed hard at world pvp and abandoned it for mini-games. Their balance between pve and pvp systems failed so they were forced to separate the 2 into almost entirely different games. This is confirmation of design failure. Stop using it as a damn template for mmo pvp. It should never had gone that way. New mmos need to integrate all systems to emulate a consistent world. ZOS is on the edge of making this happen within their design limitations. I hope they continue moving away from current industry standards instead of emulating them.

DobbaDeuce

I've played this campaign for probably 10+ hours over the past 2 days (was sitting at #9 on Daggerfall Emperor list when I last logged off), and the player vs. player battles are some of the best I've experienced so far since the game launched. Over this time I've grown from level 30 to 32, and racked up over 100,000 alliance points. Also in this time, only one keep has been captured total, by all alliances.

The groups I've been in have made it through outer and inner walls, but always wipe when confronted with the NPCs inside the inner keep. Because of this we, and our enemies, are simply reverting to out of keep battles where there aren't any NPC interruptions. It's still a lot of fun, but can get a bit repetitious without the lure of objectives and the possibility of an ally becoming emperor.

The NPC power will most likely need to be decreased for the actual objectives to be a factor in this campaign.

Braidas

DobbaDeuce wrote: »

I've played this campaign for probably 10+ hours over the past 2 days (was sitting at #9 on Daggerfall Emperor list when I last logged off), and the player vs. player battles are some of the best I've experienced so far since the game launched. Over this time I've grown from level 30 to 32, and racked up over 100,000 alliance points. Also in this time, only one keep has been captured total, by all alliances.

The groups I've been in have made it through outer and inner walls, but always wipe when confronted with the NPCs inside the inner keep. Because of this we, and our enemies, are simply reverting to out of keep battles where there aren't any NPC interruptions. It's still a lot of fun, but can get a bit repetitious without the lure of objectives and the possibility of an ally becoming emperor.

The NPC power will most likely need to be decreased for the actual objectives to be a factor in this campaign.

This seems like a comical oversight by ZOS.

Magister_Aena

Hooray for EP's first successful keep capture in the Blade!

Rylana

Magister_Aena wrote: »

Hooray for EP's first successful keep capture in the Blade!

Did we take back BRK?

Magister_Aena

Rylana wrote: »

Magister_Aena wrote: »

Hooray for EP's first successful keep capture in the Blade!

Did we take back BRK?

We took Aleswell

Rylana

Magister_Aena wrote: »

Rylana wrote: »

Magister_Aena wrote: »

Hooray for EP's first successful keep capture in the Blade!

Did we take back BRK?

We took Aleswell

The plot thickens

Magister_Aena

Congratulations to Blanket for being the first emperor of the Blade!I really didn't think it could be done, nice going.

Cody

so pizza did not get first emp in the non-vet? good.

Magister_Aena

End of Blackwater Blade round 1! That was amazing, the last few hours was an intense fight with AD, and EP celebrated the end by taking Bleaker's in 30 seconds!

My murder kitten will see you all in round two, where I will be crowned EMPEROR Murder Kitten!

Hozec

frwinters_ESO wrote: »

Remember your stats are boosted to to be equal to the enemy, so they should be ok to kill. Only disadvantage would be less passives and skills to use in PvP/

thats false. Yes our stats are boosted but a npc guard literally 2-4 hits anyone and they are dead. Need like 8 people or more just to survive a resource. let alone take a keep

Cody

frwinters_ESO wrote: »

Remember your stats are boosted to to be equal to the enemy, so they should be ok to kill. Only disadvantage vould be less passives and skills to use in PvP/

your stats are boosted to level 50. the NPCs you face are beefed up VR5s that even Vr12s have trouble dealing with.

Rylana

Magister_Aena wrote: »

End of Blackwater Blade round 1! That was amazing, the last few hours was an intense fight with AD, and EP celebrated the end by taking Bleaker's in 30 seconds!

My murder kitten will see you all in round two, where I will be crowned EMPEROR Murder Kitten!

hehehe well nows your chance since i logged out to go to bed, youve got about five hours to get past me

Cody

So whats the word with the keep guards? they still killing players in 1-2 hits? iv seen some keeps get captured, so maybe something has changed?

murmur

NookyZooky wrote: »

So whats the word with the keep guards? they still killing players in 1-2 hits? iv seen some keeps get captured, so maybe something has changed?

On EU non-vet AD took all keeps & resources before first round was done. So I would say that it ain't impossible to take keeps, just need numbers and tactics.

Cody

murmur wrote: »

NookyZooky wrote: »

So whats the word with the keep guards? they still killing players in 1-2 hits? iv seen some keeps get captured, so maybe something has changed?

On EU non-vet AD took all keeps & resources before first round was done. So I would say that it ain't impossible to take keeps, just need numbers and tactics.

well good for AD, but that does not answer my question. You CAN take keeps with huge zergs, but its VERY difficult, and not fun at all.

PF1901

murmur wrote: »

NookyZooky wrote: »

So whats the word with the keep guards? they still killing players in 1-2 hits? iv seen some keeps get captured, so maybe something has changed?

On EU non-vet AD took all keeps & resources before first round was done. So I would say that it ain't impossible to take keeps, just need numbers and tactics.

I'd be interested to know how much player resistance they encountered while doing so. Not to put down their effort but in my opinion it's nigh impossible to take a keep when there are real players with some organized gameplay interfering while one tries to pve the keep. Guards need to be toned down in non-vet, plain and simple.

murmur

PF1901 wrote: »

murmur wrote: »

NookyZooky wrote: »

So whats the word with the keep guards? they still killing players in 1-2 hits? iv seen some keeps get captured, so maybe something has changed?

On EU non-vet AD took all keeps & resources before first round was done. So I would say that it ain't impossible to take keeps, just need numbers and tactics.

I'd be interested to know how much player resistance they encountered while doing so. Not to put down their effort but in my opinion it's nigh impossible to take a keep when there are real players with some organized gameplay interfering while one tries to pve the keep. Guards need to be toned down in non-vet, plain and simple.

There were almost equal player resistance on most of the keeps. I think only last one were defended only by couple players, as majority had given up. Some of the battles took several hours, so it wasn't fast and easy task.

@NookyZooky‌ Guards still hit like a truck, so don't try to solo them.

Rylana

Ive defended Aleswell keep solo for three hours against a blue force of about 12-15.

Was a huge D-tick for sure, but it pretty much sums up how powerful the guards are. Try doing that on a vet campaign, not gonna happen.

Cody

murmur wrote: »

PF1901 wrote: »

murmur wrote: »

NookyZooky wrote: »

So whats the word with the keep guards? they still killing players in 1-2 hits? iv seen some keeps get captured, so maybe something has changed?

On EU non-vet AD took all keeps & resources before first round was done. So I would say that it ain't impossible to take keeps, just need numbers and tactics.

I'd be interested to know how much player resistance they encountered while doing so. Not to put down their effort but in my opinion it's nigh impossible to take a keep when there are real players with some organized gameplay interfering while one tries to pve the keep. Guards need to be toned down in non-vet, plain and simple.

There were almost equal player resistance on most of the keeps. I think only last one were defended only by couple players, as majority had given up. Some of the battles took several hours, so it wasn't fast and easy task.

@NookyZooky‌ Guards still hit like a truck, so don't try to solo them.

soloing? 2 of the archers can kill an entire group. iv seen 20 player + zergs get killed by the inner keep guards. iv seen huge zergs get killed at a resource! why would I try to solo these guys as a non-vet? people have a hard time soloing them as VR12!

Magister_Aena

The battle level 10% increase has barely changed anything, people are still two-shot by guards. ZOS, I understand you want to take baby steps with the PvP stuff, but if you leave this issue hanging too long, you'll ruin PvP for all of the subvets.

driosketch

Magister_Aena wrote: »

The battle level 10% increase has barely changed anything, people are still two-shot by guards. ZOS, I understand you want to take baby steps with the PvP stuff, but if you leave this issue hanging too long, you'll ruin PvP for all of the subvets.

You know what, now that I've had the opportunity to play for a bit on Blackwater, the NPCs didn't seem to be much problem for the players I was with. What exactly are you *** when you encounter this?

Cody

driosketch wrote: »

Magister_Aena wrote: »

The battle level 10% increase has barely changed anything, people are still two-shot by guards. ZOS, I understand you want to take baby steps with the PvP stuff, but if you leave this issue hanging too long, you'll ruin PvP for all of the subvets.

You know what, now that I've had the opportunity to play for a bit on Blackwater, the NPCs didn't seem to be much problem for the players I was with. What exactly are you *** when you encounter this?

NPCs two shotting players is a problem. iv even seen high level 40s get 2 shotted. ZOS just needs to reduce the NPC keep guard levels, down to 50. its a NON VETERAN CAMPAIGN, there should NOT be veteran enemie,s in the NON VETERAN CAMPAIGN. I have not played with this increase in battle level. once I get to level 30, ill go back and try it, I hope im just complaiing about nothing at this point.:(