Playstation: NA and EU (Gray Host) - This Must Be The Place...

geonsocal

whoa...was in aleswell mill tower with about 6 or so other AD players...we were able to stay in the tower and defend at the door for at least 3 or 4 attacks...finally starting to understand the role my sorcerer should play in a small pvp environment (encase, mage's wrath, minefields, and most importantly - eye of storm )...

finally, I died on the first floor steps - i swear at least 30 EP players just stepped on me

let me ask you a question deezy - think the other two alliances use the bridge against AD?

right now EP has gotten off to a slight lead...no question, to win this campaign you have to put up numbers overnight here in the states - that means our pvp buddies from around the world will have a very large say in whom wins the current campaign...

I haven't really seen a lot of the early morning european players, cuz I'm out here in cali - but, I have seen the asia-pacific, oceania, down under ( ) type folks...

I'll tell you this much about them - they got real nice looking gear, a lot of cp capped players, and, they know how to seige - very fast

that might be my new objective this year - try to group with more folks from all over the world - sometimes, that can be more interesting than the game...

geonsocal

looks like we lost our bid for Atin this week, need to check out our current vendor's name in wayrest...'backing alley trading' is the guild...very consistent - personally, if it's end game type stuff you need: glyphs, jewelry, materials, gear, drinks/food (i don't use potions, not sure about them?) - great guild to check in on...when I'm in IC and I need something - great to have it as one of my guilds...find just about anything...

there's some "weird stuff"/changes going on in the world of guild stores...it looks like things are getting more expensive/political in their world (i'm a simple merchant myself )...

I'm going to see if I can ask my GM, she oversees two top trading guilds (hope I get a chance to see her house, with a throne )...

I'm fortunate to be in another good top trading company - 'thieves market', hands down the funniest daily messages ever - gave us the whole "grinch" story for Christmas...

that GM also mentioned some turmoil in the process...

Curragraigue

geonsocal wrote: »

looks like we lost our bid for Atin this week, need to check out our current vendor's name in wayrest...'backing alley trading' is the guild...very consistent - personally, if it's end game type stuff you need: glyphs, jewelry, materials, gear, drinks/food (i don't use potions, not sure about them?) - great guild to check in on...when I'm in IC and I need something - great to have it as one of my guilds...find just about anything...

there's some "weird stuff"/changes going on in the world of guild stores...it looks like things are getting more expensive/political in their world (i'm a simple merchant myself )...

I'm going to see if I can ask my GM, she oversees two top trading guilds (hope I get a chance to see her house, with a throne )...

I'm fortunate to be in another good top trading company - 'thieves market', hands down the funniest daily messages ever - gave us the whole "grinch" story for Christmas...

that GM also mentioned some turmoil in the process...

I bought a six figure weapon from Back Alley last night my time so sort of helping your guild with its next week bid.

You need to get into potions. It is an expensive habit for PvP and trials but it is a must. Train up your characters to get the passives as well to get the most out of them.

Maff

Well deserved win for AD on the last campaign. Of course having numbers helped but they played the campaign well.
DC already off to a bad start. I was getting wiped over and over trying to take Glade back so decided to check what was happening at Alessia. Pretty much all of DC were there farming AP.
DC is out of this campaign already. Maybe it's time to grind up an AD character because fighting for DC is no fun any more and feels like a waste of time. Shame because I have 10 DC toons, 9 vets, but DC is no longer able to be competitive when everyone is AP farming and doing nothing to help win the campaign.

dotme

Yung_deezy818 wrote: »

Everyone knows EP has largest population this is due from skyrim fan boys. now on Scourge D.C. And EP always outnumber us per players (besides this current camp), where in had AD would outnumber. But across all servers I say EP is biggest.

Up until this new campaign, I would have disagreed with that... There may be more EP players in ESO, but I'm not sure as many of them PVP. We're only a couple of days in on the new campaign, but EP population seems a little healthier so far.

Maff wrote: »

Maybe it's time to grind up an AD character because fighting for DC is no fun any more and feels like a waste of time. Shame because I have 10 DC toons, 9 vets, but DC is no longer able to be competitive when everyone is AP farming and doing nothing to help win the campaign.

Nah - come to EP!

We could use all the help we can get. As for farming, I guess it is a legitimate strategy for those seeking AP, but I do think it's very bad for the game. There's a group of DC players who have made farming towers and outposts an art form - They're VERY good at it. I must have stealth-torched 8 camps last night around BRK and still they kept coming back. DC only had a couple of keeps, but to that farming group it clearly didn't matter.

Not to derail the conversation, but IMO farming like that is killing the spirit of the game. I'm left scratching my head... why did ZOS remove tower doors, but then introduce destro-ults and outpost-respawning? When I first started playing ESO PVP, I thought it was all about capturing keeps and resources to win a campaign. Somehow, it's now become more profitable (or fun?) to occupy a resource tower or outpost for hours on end while your alliance loses all their keeps and resources.

This is my first MMO so I don't know if this is a problem with all of them, or just ESO. I do think PS4 NA would benefit from fewer campaigns, a change to how AP is earned, and removal of IC from the population caps calculations.

Scourge can still serve up some epic battles (The 3-way battle to dethrone AD at Alessia a couple of days ago, for example) but I do feel the farming is only going to get worse and it turns players off, possibly resulting in lower populations all-round.

Maff

I was mildly irked by the farming in the last campaign when we needed help to take keeps but to see half your alliance doing it so soon into a new campaign is a real problem for me. There was only one large(ish) group pushing and still a queue to get into Scourge. I'm ok with being outnumbered due to a low population but to have the rest of DC taking up space and not playing the campaign I'm just needlessly getting wiped all the time.

And if i switch I'd only play on AD for easier access to them DC farming locations

geonsocal

Curragraigue wrote: »

You need to get into potions. It is an expensive habit for PvP and trials but it is a must. Train up your characters to get the passives as well to get the most out of them.

@Curragraigue ...i know - it's just painful...for one having to conform to the norm , two - figuring out what potions to use and when, and, then remembering to actually use them once i have them quick slotted...

i do though want to improve my play...and, maybe even more importantly - if i'm gonna run in small groups - i don't want to let down my teammates...

Maff wrote: »

DC already off to a bad start. I was getting wiped over and over trying to take Glade back so decided to check what was happening at Alessia. Pretty much all of DC were there farming AP.

i saw the same thing - it had me scratching my head...also, lot's of blue farming/fighting on the bridge

Maff wrote: »

I have 10 DC toons, 9 vets, but DC is no longer able to be competitive when everyone is AP farming and doing nothing to help win the campaign.

i'm not sure what made me split up all my characters into the different alliances...i do know they that many players for "rp" and other reasons simply want nothing to do with some of the alliances...i have a strong feeling that my time on DC characters this campaign is going to be doing a lot of defending (more than likely a little pvdooring action thrown in )...

dotme wrote: »

Not to derail the conversation, but IMO farming like that is killing the spirit of the game. I'm left scratching my head... why did ZOS remove tower doors, but then introduce destro-ults and outpost-respawning? When I first started playing ESO PVP, I thought it was all about capturing keeps and resources to win a campaign. Somehow, it's now become more profitable (or fun?) to occupy a resource tower or outpost for hours on end while your alliance loses all their keeps and resources.

This is my first MMO so I don't know if this is a problem with all of them, or just ESO. I do think PS4 NA would benefit from fewer campaigns, a change to how AP is earned, and removal of IC from the population caps calculations.

very very legit comments...i think a lot of us are thinking the exact same thing...

Maff

@geonsocal I got used to running with the same people. Been in 2 great pvp guilds since I started out in the second Azura campaign and made some good friends in DC so I had no desire to fight against them. And I enjoy the alliance rivalry too.
Playing against DC would be very strange as it's hard to gauge who's good and what groups are dangerous when you're on the same side.

wazzz56

Maff wrote: »

I was mildly irked by the farming in the last campaign when we needed help to take keeps but to see half your alliance doing it so soon into a new campaign is a real problem for me. There was only one large(ish) group pushing and still a queue to get into Scourge. I'm ok with being outnumbered due to a low population but to have the rest of DC taking up space and not playing the campaign I'm just needlessly getting wiped all the time.

And if i switch I'd only play on AD for easier access to them DC farming locations

@Maff

come to the darkside......be one with us! One of Us! One of Us!One of US! lol

geonsocal

Maff wrote: »

@geonsocal I got used to running with the same people. Been in 2 great pvp guilds since I started out in the second Azura campaign and made some good friends in DC so I had no desire to fight against them. And I enjoy the alliance rivalry too.
Playing against DC would be very strange as it's hard to gauge who's good and what groups are dangerous when you're on the same side.

I can definitely understand your hesitancy fighting against folks whom you normally fight alongside...

I feel the same ways towards AD at times...however, once the arrows and ults start flying around the combat field, and there's a dozen or so people trying to get in your keep to wipe you - that feeling goes away pretty quickly

maybe a change to solo or small group pvp would be a fun change for you...having options on which character to play and which side to play on is nice...but, it does mean you have to detach yourself from the whole idea of an "alliance war", and, pvp for the sake of pvping...

if your not too salty a player, it's pretty easy to bounce back and forth...i rarely of ever get grief from other folks...heck, when I'm playing with people they probably don't even realize we may have been trying to kill one another the day before...

geonsocal

howdy @wazzz56 , hope all is well and the new year has started off smooth for you...

so, after having a chance to run around with some actual "competitive" pvpers it made me wonder...

just from reading some of your posts, you seem to have things worked out fairly well in pvp land - are you one of those competitive pvp type folks?

geonsocal

just wondering - how many other "competitive" pvpers do we have out there whom check in from time to time on this thread...

I would define competitive as someone whom is able to fight and fairly regularly win against 3 or 4 other regular (cp300 and above) type players...

earning lots of AP, being given good at dueling - to me do want necessarily equate to being a competitive pvper...

at one point (when I first started) that was my objective, somewhere along the line I realized just how dang hard it actually was and I sorta gave up hope on it...

it would be interesting to pick the brain a bit from sime folks whom saw the whole process through to getting to the top of the pvp world...

I would guess that those folks are also competitive pvpers on other games too...

call of duty lightening reflexes in eso pvp sounds pretty scary...

Maff

@geonsocal Lol I get mad salty in text chat, but it's half trolling half trying to get DC to use some brains.

My guild does run small groups and I solo a lot. I will zerg surf occasionally but I'm kinda over running in big groups. My guild is much more social focused these days, a lot of people got burnt out on pvp.

I'm perhaps a little burnt out too. I get a few hours in pretty much daily and the longest break I took was about 3 weeks (after the mass ban for the writ exploit ) since release.
I love to pvp though. I'm barely average at it but I have some great times in Scourge when I can get my brain and fingers coordinated.

geonsocal

I'd say if you really want a good understanding of what goes on in scourge/"the alliance war" - try it from all sides...

you might get kicked from the occasional guild for it (:#), but - oh well...those people whom you are cool with, you can still be cool with...

it seems like DC may end up spending a good bit of the campaign stuck west of glademist...

free yourself from any constraints...there's lots of good people on each side of the fight...

for me this year - i want to try grouping more with players from outside the states (broaden my horizons a bit and get a little more knowledge on foreign beers ) - and, i want to continue playing small group pvp to get better at competing...

it's fun to win a lot...and, there are a fair number of players in scourge who do win a lot of their fights...I'm curious now to learn how they're doing it...

geonsocal

playing DC again a bit tonight - wow what a difference a month or so can make...totally different experience...AD and EP just keep pushing us to glademist all the time...

strangely enough, we seem to be holding alessia just fine, which basically means we're cutting off AD and EP from fighting one another at the bridge or sejanus...this seems to be a thing now...yikes...

wazzz56

geonsocal wrote: »

howdy @wazzz56 , hope all is well and the new year has started off smooth for you...

so, after having a chance to run around with some actual "competitive" pvpers it made me wonder...

just from reading some of your posts, you seem to have things worked out fairly well in pvp land - are you one of those competitive pvp type folks?

@geonsocal
hope all is well with you too brother!
I guess I fit that mold lol..I play to have fun, but like winning and what not..Had the luxury just after launch to fall in with some very skilled players who transferred over from PC show me the ropes.
Being a coach and having a sports background leads to being in the "competitive" category, which is why I prefer PVP to PVE.
I am the guy who does not rage about getting killed (even by cheese builds) , but will get miffed when somebody is not following the crown and getting themselves killed, but get elated when a successful zerg bomb or keep defense happens.
I love bombing groups on flags w my magblade, healing through emp destro ults on my healbot, dueling, Hunting blues in the sewers, ganking, taking keeps, defending keeps, pushing emp for a friend, dethroning emp, being emp .....I love teaching people new things (we just absorbed some leaders of a very accomplished PVE guild who wanted to start PvPing, they love it and are awesome!) ...I love still learning new things..I love trolling my friends on other alliances, love pretty much all of it...so I guess I am a PVP enthusiast! (who happens to be competitive).

geonsocal

hey @wazzz56 ...so would you call your builds traditional in that whether you're focused on magicka or stamina you invest 50 plus attribute points in that particular attribute...

do you have monster sets incorporated in most of your builds...do you make sure to keep around 2 to 3k invested in crit resistance...

do your sorcerers all carry a resto staff...is your magblade using a resto staff...do you primarily use tri stat food...do you incorporate pots in your play...

how important are spell and weapon damage to your builds...

how important are the other two regen stats to you other than whatever your specialty is...

sorry for rambling...unfortunatley at the moment - I hate resto staffs, I'm addicted to regen and I'm feeling too stubborn (i like balance) to assign 50 plus points all into one attribute...I have a slight thing for the reinforced trait on my armor too

just need to focus and push past my current state of inertia...

wazzz56

geonsocal wrote: »

hey @wazzz56 ...so would you call your builds traditional in that whether you're focused on magicka or stamina you invest 50 plus attribute points in that particular attribute...

do you have monster sets incorporated in most of your builds...do you make sure to keep around 2 to 3k invested in crit resistance...

do your sorcerers all carry a resto staff...is your magblade using a resto staff...do you primarily use tri stat food...do you incorporate pots in your play...

how important are spell and weapon damage to your builds...

how important are the other two regen stats to you other than whatever your specialty is...

sorry for rambling...unfortunatley at the moment - I hate resto staffs, I'm addicted to regen and I'm feeling too stubborn (i like balance) to assign 50 plus points all into one attribute...I have a slight thing for the reinforced trait on my armor too

just need to focus and push past my current state of inertia...

@geonsocal lol where to begin......

PVP I always have all attribute points into stam or mag..Pve I will put some into health

as far as monster sets go...on my heal bot I mostly use 2 1 piece monster...sometimes I use engine guardian ..sometimes others...On my bomb blade I do not use any monster sets ( dw/destro....3 willpower jewlery, 3 vd body, 2 vd sharpened swords, 4 clever alch body, clever destro staff) on my other mag blade I will sometimes stack monster sets with max mag...and on my sorcs I mostly do wear complete monster sets.

Crit resist...zero on bomb blade...3k on healbot.....fluctuates on my mag sorc depending on how I feel like playing (tried running zero impen in some duels recently with my mag sorc and was taking 16k dark flares to the face)

Resto staff....mag sorc does, one mag balde does, bomb blade does not..as far as reinforced go, I have a few friends who are accomplished pvpers who are secretly obsessed with it

food...I use tri stat on my mag blades...bi stat on heal bot (repentance replenishes my stam)...witches brew on my sorc...so this will vary...

Potions....I cannot stress the importance of pots......I slot 4 pots on my healbot (immov. + mag+health, detection , Invis, and trash stam for when I have to stay move extended periods in stealth..being argonian makes tri pots insane btw) I run immov + spell crit+ mag on my bomb blade and keep detect pots slotted ( i have these slotted on all toons in pvp)..I use tripots on my other mag blade.....weapon power pots on stamsorcs... I love potions...

Weapon Damage and spell damage....

I look at weapon damage to be more important to my stam builds versus the importance of spell damage to my mag builds....
I will stack veli and kena get my w/d up over 4k unbuffed but have to choose between max health /stam regen food or max/max food....

on most of my mag builds I am fine with s/d 2500 if I have high enough regen...bombblade I have higher s/d but very low regen...I am fairly certain I avoided answering any of your questions lol

geonsocal

Growing up one of those “clichéd” expressions I heard over and over again: ‘you’re born with nothing but the skin on your butt, each day you should wake up and thank god for it, no one owes you a god dang thing in the world, not a god dang thing’…the expression came from my mom, whom got it from her dad…haven’t heard her say it for a very long time – but, it’s burned into my brain…

Point being – thank you very much for your patience, and for taking the time and making the effort to put all this down to help me…I appreciate it…

I’m gonna have to “pretend” like I’m getting stuff down for the next 8 hours or so (just joking oh so awesome employer of mine – your faithful man servant geo is always doing his absolute best to enhance operations here at this fine fine company )…

truth is, I’ll be digesting every word you wrote and dreaming of builds (which I seem to spend a lot of time doing already)…thanks again @wazzz56…

Takes-No-Prisoner

just watch out for my MagDK

geonsocal

please, don't tell me @Takes-No-Prisoner that you're one of these "meta" folks too...

isn't anyone satisfied with just being "okay" and getting by on fun and funky builds??????????

Takes-No-Prisoner

geonsocal wrote: »

please, don't tell me @Takes-No-Prisoner that you're one of these "meta" folks too...

isn't anyone satisfied with just being "okay" and getting by on fun and funky builds??????????

H-h-hey! I made 2 tanks this past week or so.

I just happen to be an alt-a-holic... So now I have 2 DKs, 2 Templars, 2 Sorcs, 2 NB lv50 w/ gear and a good chunk of CP. It wouldn't be right to not have a MagDK in my collection

geonsocal

I'm gonna guess than that when you build - you build toward the "meta" (i'm trying so hard not to say 'the right way' )...

wherein you take advantage of all available sets (monster stets included)...focus your characters specifically on a certain role (in the form of placing 50 plus of you attribute points in a single resource)...utilize pots, etc...

are your gonna make your tanks "unkillable"?

what type of gear did you outfit your tanks with? how many attributes do you invest in your health?

did you glyph your armor for health, do you use the defending trait on your weapons, tri stat food?

steed mundus? do have separate jewelry or is it part of your armor set? using any monster gear?

just how much hp have you been able to achieve?

ugh, I just wanna go home and work on my builds now

Takes-No-Prisoner

Nah my tanks are killable. But I brought my Blazing Shield Templar into Pvp to mess around with it.

I can give you the gear layout in the spoiler below, not including the rotations tho

MagNB* [Gank/Bombblade] 5x Vicious Death, 5x Clever alchemist or some other Spell power DPS set? Maybe 2x Kena? /// [Desto/Resto]

StamNB [Gank/DPS] 5x Viper, 5x Spriggian, 1x Velidreith /// [Bow/2H]

StamDK [Tank/Ult Battery] 5x Plague Doctor, 5x Tava's Blessing, 2x Malubeth or Bloodspawn or Engine Guardian /// [S+B/S+B]

MagDK [DPS] 5x Silks of the Sun, 5x Seducers, 1x Infernal Gurdian, 1x Malubeth /// [S+B/ Resto]

MagTemplar [Tank/Blazing] 5x Plague Doctor, 5x Green Pact, 2x Malubeth or Bloodspawn or Engine Guardian /// [S+B/S+B]

MagTemplar [Healer] - 5x Spinner, 5xKagnerac, 1x ChokeThorn, 1x Troll King /// [S+B/Resto]

MagSorc [DPS/Negate/EOTS] - 5x Lich, 5xSpinner, 1xLlambris /// [Destro/Restro]

StamSorc [DPS/Negate] - 5x Viper, 5x Black Rose, 1x Selenes, 1x Velidreith or 2x Bloodspawn /// [S+B/2H] **Can also be gear swapped for Ult battery for Negate spam**

Stats vary on race or glyph choices, but from my experience if you're running something like DK or Temp, I recommend 30k+ HP rest into your DPS resource so you can survive the proc sets.

Tanks, with the Blazplar I got close to 70k in pvp, but toned it down some what for resources. StamDK has 35k.

Attributes are pretty much spent into one resource for my DPS. Tanks are different. Around 35 in health for my Magtemp/StamDK and around 11 points in magic/stamina.

Champion point spread is more dynamic for my tanks. The DPS is pretty cut and dry, and in the spots you'd expect to see points pumped into-- like regain, reduce cost, damage, damage over time, crit resist, baston, healing recieved, healing done, spell crit, damage over time, physical damage, spell pen. etc.

Mundus depends on the character. MagDK has Atro, StamSorc -Thief, MagSorc -Thief, MagTemp -Thief, Blazplar -Lord, StamDK -Lord, MagNB -Thief, StamNB -Thief.

Tri stat food is what I use. Cp150 food.

*I'm remaking the MagNB gears into a bomb blade soonish, but ideally this is what her set up will be. She is also my 9-trait crafter.

geonsocal

wow, so i'm guessing you are a little beastly out there playing in cyro...

thank you very much for sharing all that detailed information...really good/enlightening stuff...

I have no desire to copy any other build or character...but, I do need to read carefully your words and wazz's, and start conforming more to the norm...

I can't let my obstinate nature interfere with me bringing grief to all our other pvp buddies out there in scourge...

once the new update hits, hopefully zos will cut us some slack on "respeccing" costs... I'm gonna adjust my attributes for all my characters then...ugh, I'll probably also take some time to level my alchemy so I can get up to speed with making some pots (if I'm ever able to remember to use them )...

thanks again

Takes-No-Prisoner

I don't mind if you copy my stuff. There is not really an original build out there anyway. Moreover, the gear and stats are only part of the equation. If you don't have a solid rotation, it won't work anyway. Rotation of skills is a big part of it. Including things like Mages Guild abilities which increase magic and grant empower when used. Or getting Dawnbreaker to finish off enemies or Rearming Trap for the Major Force buff.

All you need is a singular idea for the character. What is their main objective? Once you figure that out, gear towards that goal. Slot abilities that have synergy with that goal.

geonsocal

Takes-No-Prisoner wrote: »

All you need is a singular idea for the character. What is their main objective? Once you figure that out, gear towards that goal. Slot abilities that have synergy with that goal.

that's really good stuff right there...

i'm having a very padawan moment right now

Takes-No-Prisoner

You know the guy who was the last Emperor of Scourge? OJ-Zero?

I've run with him a few times, he runs a build that en-compasses what I meant. His MagNB toon does only one thing: Kills people en mass. Vicious+another damage set and EoTS his targets melting them as he Lotus Fan's to the next target. It's devastating and very effective. He can take out large pockets of groups.

But he also dies a lot, since hes spec'ed in Light Armor and all damage, no defense. But his build nets him a lot of AP for the very gung-oh way he plays it.

It's not the best build to play and only is great at one thing, but it's really useful for group play for protecting small scale groups. He's saved my life by jumping into the zerg in front of me and killing off a large chunk. If he dies, the enemy gets too panicked to focus in on us and he can be res'ed within that time of confusion.

TequilaFire

Looks like everybody got on their AD tonight, yellow hordes everywhere.
Oh well Warriors will take it back tomorrow.
Least I got to test a new build. lol

geonsocal

howdy @TequilaFire ...thanks for stopping in...good to read you're out there wrecking folks in scourge

I do occasionally run into players that seem fairly new to pvp, by far though - i mostly run into a lot of players with really good gear, capped cp and some tight rotations (nice to see proxi det making a strong comeback on my death recaps )

been testing out a few new builds in cyrodiil today, tried for a while in IC, but, that can be a challenging spot to practice at...so, doing some playing now in cyro on an AD and DC character (ugh, I'm even learning to use a resto staff on mag sorc )

just respecced their attributes and skills...they're both dps magic focused characters, but, I'm still having trouble committing all 64 pts to magicka, could only do 50...I'm getting there -slowly

well, finally came to the conclusion that joining any pvp focused guilds while keeping all my characters in the same map - probably isn't such a great idea...

thanks for making me feel guilty @Yung_deezy818 ...geez, after reading your guild notes I couldn't bear the weight of guilt any longer...

truth is - you're 100% right...any large group based pvp based guild should insist it's members exclusively play one alliance only within that map...

I mostly prefer solo play; however, I would like to look into more smaller based pvp guilds within each alliance in scourge...

pvp guilds with small numbers may work for me?

any who, good call deezy - your message was right on point

hey Tequila Fire - i think i may have seen your ID somewhere in chat (one thing that is challenging for sure having so many characters in each alliance is that it's hard to remember whom fights for which side)...you part of that mighty red machine which seems to be humming along pretty smoothly in first place (up 600 pts on AD) in scourge?