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

Pink_E_808

I see you're on NA today, lmao! 😆

geonsocal

howdy @Pink_E_808 - awwwww, thanks so much for saying hi...

I love it when folks run through their emotes...

oh my goodness, it was such an amazing day in cyrodiil - both servers have a flood of blue at the moment...

it was glorious helping to subjugate both the pact and dominion all day long - across both servers...

that doesn't happen too often

it's funny, for whatever reason, over the years - I've developed a pretty decent dislike for the faction to our east...

when the map starts turning blue - I spend a lot of time in kingcrest or farragut making it as much a pain in the butt to take back as I can...

yes, petty I know...

however, I can feel the ebonheart pact moving north and west - in my sleep...

geonsocal

one disappointment though, missed another opportunity to knock an enemy, hanging out in our keep, off the outer wall...

last time I had a templar and was trying the javelin, today missed with the magnum shot...oh my goodness, can't even remember which toon it was on...

I still have the pelinal's buff on, I played several toons today...

Pink_E_808

@geonsocal I wrote my comment as you were still dancing over my body, lol. I would have waved before I died had I seen you, but there were too many of y'all. AD was determined to get all up in your territory!
I'm still a little leery with the server upgrade being so new, but I've been in some pretty great fights the last few days with much less lag. Idk about you, but it has made Cyrodiil more fun for me again. So far. Fingers crossed it lasts for a while.
I'll give you a wave if I can next time I see you, that is, if I'm not engulfed in a sea of blue again, lol.

geonsocal

hmmmm, I have a slot available on the EU server for a new arcanist - debating whether I'll begin a new toon over on the NA server...

I already have all 10 races in play on the NA server...

been thinking maybe about turning my redguard stamblade in to a redguard arcanist...

for whatever reason, the stamblade doesn't excite me too much...

edit: hmmmm, there is no class change token...

think I'll just turn him into a bow toon, spriggans and markmans crest...

I'll probably go ahead and start a new arcanist toon on thr NA server...

I'll go with another argonian, that potion passive of theirs is super key in cyrodiil...

geonsocal

went ahead and bought up all the cold-fire ballistas listed for 10k or less at the major trading cities...

came to about 12 or so on each server over the last couple of weeks...

I do a lot of solo keep defending...setting up 2 oils to drive folks off the ram and front door leads to them moving back a bit to set up their siege...

perfect time to drop a couple of cold-fire ballistas to either wipe or delay folks sieging...

only problem with that is if they're smart enough to use cold-fire trebuchets as counter-siege...

those cold-fire trebuchets can one shot you 🥶

geonsocal

howdy

I hope all is well...

about 12 days left I think til the end of this campaign...

DC is no longer leading the way in the EU campaign, still, it's competitive during most of the primetime period...

over on the NA server I think DC has about a 4k lead...spending a lot of time pushing on EP and defending against AD...

I still have the pelinal buff on a bunch of toons, so everyone's reached tier 3 already...

over on the EU serving using my necro mag with dark convergence...graveyard and the pummeling goliath are the triggers...

for the NA server been using my magblade with dark convergence...triggering that with time stop...

I'm a bubble spammer basically...

they're both in mara's balm with one bar oakensoul builds...

as a solo random potato 🥔 - , along with my siege weapons and awesome ally rezzing abilities allows me to have the greatest impact on daily fighting...

geonsocal

actually just checked and my necro mag is wearing heavy julianos instead of mara's balm...

the magblade though is in mara's balm...you just can't stay hidden forever...if you want to "burst people down", you have to be really selective in your targets...

being able to stand and fight a little with your magblade is a lot of fun...concealed weapon is a heck of a melee attack...

geonsocal

hello hello hello...

I hope all is well...still out there in Grey Host grinding away...

just recently switched over to the ps5...holy cow is that thing huge...

no question though game performance has improved greatly...a lot less worry about disconnects and lag...

to be honest, not sure what the score looks like on either server...most times though I log on there's some fighting going on...

still playing on my magblade and necro mag...

you know, I miss more often than hit with dark convergence...my timing is not so great

spending a lot of time rezzing folks and spamming combat prayer...

neither toon is set up to 1 v 1, but, that doesn't stop me from looking for folks to fight for resource flags...

geonsocal

almost forgot to add - read this somewhere on the forums - someone suggested using an invisibility potion (health draught works) to help get unstuck from combat...

doesn't always work, but, has helped me a few times...

oh, and love the new trumpet solo emote - another fun one to play over people before they rez...

geonsocal

oh yeah baby - loving that new toon feel...thankfully I had some riding speed lessons...

the mount is just sooooooooooo slow

the first will be an imperial arcanist on the EU server...

the toon will be primarily stam based...early on most likely sword and board...maybe add a bow in once I hit level 15...

probably gonna buy the fighters guild skill line...

gonna use Bangkorai to level before going to cyrodiil at level 10, pick up some spriggans pieces to get a 5 piece...

about level 20 I'll add in a 5 piece Hunding's Rage set...

yeah, once I hit cyrodiil I don't plan to do too much riding...gonna camp and defend as much as possible

geonsocal

got both toons to level 15...have them sitting back at the house...

they've each opened up about 30 plus rewards of the worthy bags - but - they're each one piece short of a full set of mara's balm (it doesn't happen all the time - but, i've been getting targeted by some other players, better to have my survivability ensured first)...i'll pair one toon with hundings, the other with julianos...

survivability or sustain won't be the issue for either - the challenge is going to be getting my weapon/spell damage up high enough to execute folks...

still thinking about buying maybe the fighter's guild for my stam toon and soul magic for the mag toon just to have some ultimates to help finish folks off...

i'm going to continue to leave them at the house, play with my other toons and just let those toons open the reward bags until they get their 5th piece and then i'll craft up some gear to get them set...after that i'll save up reward bags and open them every 5 levels or so just to keep their gear fresh...

it's funny - those tentacles make it look like venom is out there...

geonsocal

oh, and thank goodness for major gallop - maybe the best improvement ever within cyrodiil

xDeusEJRx

Haven't played an arcanist, honestly I'm waiting until they separate the class from the chapter. I'm not in necrom at all, but I'm not that super interested in getting Arcanist, so I'll wait the half a year it takes for them to separate it from Necrom similar to how Warden/Necro was separated from Elsweyr and Morrowind.

I'm not buying into the fear of missing out, because it's not like Arcanist will stop existing and I need to buy it asap.

geonsocal

sounds like a plan @xDeusEJRx ...honestly, no rush with any of this stuff...

i was kind of surprised to see how many folks had already reached level 50 on their new toons the very first day...

the arcanist are definitely not OP...i did though get killed by 2 of them while playing one of my older toons - i forgot what type build i was on - but, i remember the damage they did was pretty impressive...

other than to start off the 2 new toons - i haven't travelled around the new zone yet...

one thing that helped me save a little bit of money was the seals of endeavor stuff - i was able to use that to buy a bunch of riding speed lessons...

my current plan is to level these two new toons as slowly as possible - i won't turn in the conquest quests, i'll accept and turn in the other quests though...only really get XP from NPC guards, player kills and flags...

Syrusthevirus187

i was kind of surprised to see how many folks had already reached level 50 on their new toons the very first day...

Only takes a couple hours with all the xp scrolls they give out now days.

geonsocal

oh yeah - stayed close to a tight, well organized ball group that snatched ni-mohk out of bloodmayne...

I'm used to fighting ball groups, but, I've never really been in one...this was close to it...

basically it was just: stay close and don't stop running - until the group finds some kind of choke point and then ultimate dumps and wipes the folks chasing...

it was so cool 😎

geonsocal

the whitstrake mayhem return on thursday is official:

MAYHEM RETURNS TO TAMRIEL
The counterattack has begun! The Whitestrake’s Mayhem makes its triumphant return this Thursday, June 29 at 10AM EDT, and runs until July 11 at 10AM EDT. During this in-game event, you can enjoy significant boosts to both Alliance Point and Experience Point gains and earn exciting in-game rewards by competing in ESO’s various PvP modes.

geonsocal

ugh, tough night at work...just kept dying over and over and over again...

some EP named laker nation just kept killing me again and again...that hasn't happened for a while...

was on my stam warden which isn't normally such a squishy toon...earlier in the day though was playing my stam dk (who wears both pariah and mara's balm)...

I think I may have forgotten I switched toons and was a lot more vulnerable...

still, all in all - not a great night for the home team

geonsocal

Campaign Update: about 3 or 4 days left

- EU - AD way out front, DC and EP in close race for second

- NA - DC way out front, AD and EP in close race for second

Edit: oh shoot, I just remembered - campaigns begin on the first of the month now, so, four days away...

geonsocal

ha - I am using a reverse strategy for midyear mayhem and going to either the NA or EU server in the "off-hours"

kind of working...I also have a toon parked in imperial city if the queue is long for gray host...

I really only use the extra campaigns as a way to get out of IC if I don't feel like going through the sewer...

it looks like that blue glow of immunity lasts longer now when you enter the sewers from one of the districts above...

that's really nice and much appreciated...

I literally keep my thumb next to my health draught all the time moving around or when I'm out in the open looking for a fight...

I still get beat all the time by better players, however- I usually will at least give myself a chance to respond even if I don't see the attack coming...

the worse is the invisible siege weapons- ugh, they kill me all the time..

geonsocal

still grinding on my new anarchists...one's level 20, the other 19...

collected almost all the overland skyshards in cyrodiil for each...

not all purple or "properly" traited gear yet...

it's not really necessary right now...they can fight just fine during higher alliance population moments...

they're more than fine for alliance objective combat...

1 v 1, I can stall a good bit, but can't execute yet...

more than likely I'll add soul assault to the mag arcanist and dawnbreaker to the stam arcanist once I get all their gear to purple and have everything with the proper armor/weapon/jewelry traits...

no later than level 30...I'll keep them in mara's balm until at least level 49, but everything else will be focused on finishing folks off...

from what I've noticed - peak under level 50 performance comes around levels 28 thru 42...

you can definitely catch folks off guard below around 2600 or so cp...

non-event time, most folks above that in either cyrodiil, or definitely IC, are going to be a challenge to put away...


right now I have my stam dk in NA IC and my necro mag in EU IC...

forget stealth - you can't hide right now in the districts...you're either fighting small scale, or getting run through by some group of 5 or 6 together...

sometimes folks though will let you do your quests...

one thing that has never changed about pvp - if you run in to 1 or 2 players - you may be able to "emote" (or hold block) your way out of the situation...

if there is 3 or more, either run or fight...those are going to be your only options

geonsocal

2 big things I don't have in my toon skill utility belt on either server:
mages guild (comet)
undaunted (tri-weight armor buff)

one of these days I need to get those done - particularly the undaunted passive...

NordSwordnBoard

475,000 AP defense tick Gray host. 4th of July. Woe to those forgetting the timely study of Pelinal's holy scripture.

Has anybody seen a larger number? I want to pass the story on to younger generations...

geonsocal

NordSwordnBoard wrote: »

475,000 AP defense tick Gray host. 4th of July. Woe to those forgetting the timely study of Pelinal's holy scripture.

Has anybody seen a larger number? I want to pass the story on to younger generations...

geonsocal

still having fun out there bouncing between EU and NA Gray Host...

sometimes I forget which server I'm on

my toons are fairly equal now on both servers, with just about 300 cp difference...

with the pelinal's buff I'm reaching tier 3 (100 AP for the campaign) pretty quickly...

trying to remember to train my mounts on the new arcanists...

I still haven't really figured out a long term strategy for how I'll fight them...

that'll come, right now the sub 50 combat scaling and mara's balm make me very durable with easy sustain...

that one king's tide ultimate is okayish...

but, not really a good burst damage ultimate...only works on noobs and folks stuck in a spot, for a long time...

geonsocal

as always - learning a bunch from the forum regulars...particularly those regulars who are willing to do a lot more work and effort than myself... @ fred4 and @ varanis arano are two notable folks who seem to not only be able to play - they can explain this stuff really well too...

varanis referenced this post, on one of their posts - some ball-group fighting golden wisdom right here from a poster named thraben:

Thraben wrote: »

ShortTripToHell wrote: »

I play in some sort of ball and I am certainly not the best(so take my advice with a pinch of salt). I think it should be doable, but aren't you creating a ball group to kill ball groups?

It is a common saying that "only a ball group can kill another ball group." It is not true, though. In fact, in a ball group against ball group fight, the results are almost entirely predictable. The group with the better setup and the stronger Bombblade players typically wins in 9/10 cases. The weaker group only has a real chance when their raid leader outsmarts, overwhelms with numbers or ambushes the other one. When forming a new ball group, the reputation of the raid leader typically attracts players. That means, if someone creates a ball group from scratch, the player quality alone would ensure months and years of permanent defeats. So forming an "own ball group" is not a short- or medium term solution at all.

That being said, using a ball "formation" against a superior ball group is utter madness. If you want to stop a train, you don't put your own train on a collision course and hope for the best. The best groups typically switch to a more spread-out playstyle when needed.

Ryath_Waylander wrote: »

I know that I myself would actually enjoy the challenge if someone could teach us what skills to use and dedicate a group to this purpose. Would it be possible? I know as a solo or 3 person group you're probably going to be ineffective against a ball group but could ball"breakers" be a thing?

1. Group size: Ball groups are designed to withstand at least one bombblade attack. A single bombblade, bombsorc, bombnecro or bombstamsorc can only do the job if they are already busy with someone and something else.

a) To cope with that, you can form a guild whose members share a common aversion to ballgroups. If the info "ball group there" arrives, most players will then travel to the fighting place and wear down the ball group without any further coordination. The condition for this to work is that EVERY player is capable and willing to switch to an anti-bombgroup skill setup when needed.

Ungrouped setups that work are:

I) Any magicka class with Inevitable Detonation and Vicious Death.
II) A Bomblade
III) A StamNecro Bomber
IV) An Overload StamSorc with Mechanical Acuity and Borrowed Time.
V) A Duelist type Vampire player with Azureblight Reaper (and a lot of patience)
VI) A capable Werewolf.
VII) A Warden with the Ice Portal and lots of DAMAGE.

Individually, neither of those can bring a ball group down consistently. But when attacking the ball group independently during the same battle, the pressure will become to great to bear, forcing the ball group to withdraw to a choke-point, or the roof of a keep.

b)

I) The smallest counter-bomb group size is 2. A Necro and a Bombblade. The Bombblade's setup is pretty much standard with the exception that s/he wears harmony as jewelry. The Necro's task is to provide the Grave Robber Synergy, lower the damage resitance of the enemy group, and apply a Totem/ Borrowed Time, as well as to do some additional damage. Both StamNecros and MagNecros work in that role.

II) The next tactically important group size is 4. If you have a bunch of casuals/ of people with a useless duelling/ small scale skill setup, you wait until the ball group is camping at a chokepoint of their choice (like an outpust, or a rooftop), then three of you setup three (cold-)stone trebs who are targetting the same area. The 4th player waits near the target area, and calls for the salvo, then executes the survivors with his Ulti/AoE execute skill.

III) If your group size is 5, and they are all magicka classes, you can just throw a combination of Inevitable Detonation and Blackroseprison-staff- improved Elemental rings at them. Since you can do it from 50meters away, and they are crippled by their lack of ranged fire power, you might lose some players who are getting targeted, but THEY will lose everything sooner or later. Be aware of enemy Pugs, though, as they are more dangerous to you than the enemy ball group

IIIb) edit, because I forgot to mention it : If your group size is 5, and you are fighting at at least semi- casual level, you can create your own "Mini ball group". Such groups are the smallest medium scale groups in Cyro, meaning that unlike a group of 5, say, Stamblades, they are able to do more than just ganking other players, far more.

These groups consist of:

1 StamWarden (SubAssault, Frozen Portal, AoE Execute, Healing, Bone Shield)
2 MagWardens (SubAssault, Proxy OR Inevitable Deto, Healing)
1 MagDK (Rapid buff, Proxy OR Inevitable Deto, Talons, Orbs, Wall of Frost, Healing)
1 MagNecro (Purge, Proxy OR Inevitable Deto, Grave Robber, Borrowed Time, Healing)

Your main damage sources are synergies (you have to wear harmonious jewelry), SubAssault and the Detonation.You can also have up to 4 Storm- type ultimates. If you manage to do most of the damage within 1-3 seconds, you stand a chance against most ball groups IF you manage to surprise them. Be aware , though, that your healing will not be sufficient for a prolonged fight.

IV) A fairly optimized 6-person group is able to do all of the above. Of course you might be still outnumbered 2:1, but since they are crippled by their lack of ranged firepower, and since you deny them Vicious Deaths and AoE damage situations, you can stop them long enough for allied players to arrive. With those allied meat-shields occupying them, their wipe through one of the aforementionned methods is only matter of time. Be aware, though, that those random "allied" players are more dangerous to you than to them - never fight in melee range together with those walking Vicious Death detonators.



2) Other common misconceptions:

a) "Use Lightning ballistae/ Ice Trebs!" - Maybe they die from laughter if you try that.

b) "Negate them!" - A Negate without enough damage is worthless. Most groups almost entirely rely on Vigor/ Radiant Regen, and a Negate doesn't stop that healing. A BORROWED TIME would do, though. That being said, a Negate is useful to stop barriers and a synergy strike.

c) "Spam CC!" - Great God, no. There is a hierarchy of CC in this game, and you don't want them to be immune to good (decisive) CC. That being said, soft CC should be fairly useless anyway. These groups themselves typically exploit server issues with some sort of hard CCs, and so feel free to do the same to them. However, whilst they prefer to exploit unbreakable FEARS, your best friend is the FROZEN PORTAL skill of the Warden. Use it AGAINST their general running direction, and pull the group apart. The other good CC is the aformentionned Borrowed Time.

d) "They are bots/ bad players." They fight in a group skill setup. Many of them would most likely kick your ... when they could switch to their solo skill setup. That being said, yes, there are also groups whose players are not exactly known to be good small scalers.

e) "I will snipe- gank them with my awesome penetration build!" - Wall of Frost is a skill that makes the group virtually immune to projectiles. Bows fire projectiles, so....



3) Other true statements:

a) "Leave them alone, and they'll get bored." - True. Ball groups are easy opponents because you can win by refusing to fight. Just turn the flags back, and go away when they camp on rooftops. They can actually be quite useful for your faction to guard your border outposts against another faction, or to keep your scroll safe by denying the other faction access to it.

b) "Don't repair the outpost's Main Gate!" - Fear not the fact that you are trapped with the enemy ball group inside. Fear the fact that you are trapped inside with those "allied" 17k health bowtard Vicous Death detonators right next to you.

reading through that - it reminds me a haven't played as a werewolf in a while...i have a couple of damage output werewolves...maybe pop a health draught and jump in the middle of a keep ball-group next time i can...

it's been a while, but, from what i can remember - 1 out of the 3 active werewolves i have is armored up well...i'll see which of my builds work best against a ball group...

geonsocal

for myself, if there's a ball group in the keep:

- try to set up siege...that's getting hard to do though - it seems that some of these new age ball group folks are incorporating speed buffs...really really hard to target with ballistae or catapults...

still gotta try though...

- depending on the build - aoe stuns or pulls...obviously dark convergence and the brawler pull build are pains to everyone, ball groups too...my most favorite thing though against ball groups and tanky players: the psijic time stop skill...i hate it myself, hands down though one of the very best pvp skills...it's expensive for a reason, and you sort of have to add a little extra magicka recovery to your build...

- try to "lure"/bait a member of the group away...generally they run, not fight...well, they save up their fighting for about every 20 to 30 seconds, you can try though to break one player away or disrupt their run in circles plan by giving them what they think may be an easy kill target...

- leave them alone, let them chase you down towards the flag guards...hope again you can spread them out a bit this way...

i'll be honest, a lot of times - i'll stay for the AP tics for a bit, then i'll get bored with that and look for a "real" fight

geonsocal

both arcanists are sitting at level 21...now that midyear mayhem is over and i'll be fighting more smaller scale encounters - may need to start really thinking towards adding more debuffing and damage to my build...

off the top of my head - can't remember all my resource pool stats, recovery, armor and such...from what i remember seeing though - staying alive and sustaining is not too much an issue...

what i really need is more spell/weapon damage and penetration...i don't foresee getting an abundance of critical hits/heals in until they hit 50...

and, to be honest - at this point - i think their execute rotation, which is kind of the final stage of solo game style toon building is NOT gonna come through class skills...maybe when they're 50, i'll take them through battlegrounds or IC and really test everything out...

the question becomes - how can you end the fight...you need some kind of plan and rotation for that - i'm not sure it's going to be too easy to achieve that solo with just arcanist tools...

although come to think of it - a lot of my builds already rely heavily on weapon, guild and world skills to fight...

geonsocal

campaign wise - i think we're (DC) sitting in 3rd on both servers...EP i believe is up on the NA server, and, can't remember who's leading over on the EU server...i'll check...

what i do know - i've been seeing a whole lot of yellow in the idyllic northwestern section of cyrodiil lately...


the servers blend together a bunch now...i'll see a name and recognize for the server...plus - i monitor the text zone chat a bunch...

oh man, NA just stays randy 24/7 three hundred and sixty-five days a year...

yeah, it gets tiresome...thankfully there's also a bunch of folks playing the game and enjoying - the game...and shoot, at the end of the day - are you helping out and are you rezzing folks - it's like a super added bonus to come across solo players that can also fight really well...

nothing better than winning a 2 v 3 or more with another solo player you find yourself fighting alongside...

my contribution as a level 20 something arcanist is to not die too quickly (if at all), and to buff and heal any allies i fight with...crux is easy to come by (i love the animation with Escalating Runeblades - i feel like Gambit ) - so i've been having a good bit of success with Cascading Fortune...

ha, truth be told - i'll probably end up using Combat Prayer on my mag and Echoing Vigor on my stam to help with ally healing...okay, and also to make AP

i like that campaigns align with the calendar month now...that's a good thing...

Edit: almost forgot to mention: the leaderboard has been off since the last patch...scoring and AP and stuff...