Did NPCs get a stealth BUFF ?

JamieAubrey

Ran past the Ash Farm NPCs on horse as I have done MANY TIMES, getting a few shots on me and even knocking me off my horse BUT this time I was instantly zergged down

WHAT THE F*** ? I haven't done anything different so did they get a buff ?

LMar

It was mentioned recently that guards get upgrades depending on the resources so perhaps that's what is happening

GrumpyDuckling

LMar wrote: »

It was mentioned recently that guards get upgrades depending on the resources so perhaps that's what is happening

What does "depending on the resources" mean?

runagate

GrumpyDuckling wrote: »

LMar wrote: »

It was mentioned recently that guards get upgrades depending on the resources so perhaps that's what is happening

What does "depending on the resources" mean?

What it really means in practice is that the upgrades happen the longer a particular Alliance controls a resource or keep. Right click a locale in question, whether a resource (mine, lumber mill or farm) or keep and you can inspect it and see what level it's currently at.

From http://esoacademy.com/eso-pvp-and-cyrodiil-guide/

Resources

Resources are the three mills that surround each keep. There is the Lumber Mill, the Farm and the Mine. If your Alliance owns a keep thoses resources will level up over time and provide bonuses to the defense of the keep.

Lumber Mill

The Lumber Mill gives the doors of your keep more strength.

Farm

The Farm gives the NPC guards of your keep more Health.

Mine

The Mine gives all of the walls of your keep more strength to take more hits.

Resources are important and if your keep loses all of its resources to an enemy this will cut off transitus transportation.

[ edit ] Googled that info so I didn't have to type it all as I just woke up, but what's not so obvious is that the length of time something is held equates to how upgraded the NPCs will be, too.

Which is why if you go to some buff campaign always held by another Alliance, or roll down to Black Boot or some other "home" keep and try to solo a resource, oftentimes you get pwned instantly.

GrumpyDuckling

runagate wrote: »

GrumpyDuckling wrote: »

LMar wrote: »

It was mentioned recently that guards get upgrades depending on the resources so perhaps that's what is happening

What does "depending on the resources" mean?

What it really means in practice is that the upgrades happen the longer a particular Alliance controls a resource or keep. Right click a locale in question, whether a resource (mine, lumber mill or farm) or keep and you can inspect it and see what level it's currently at.

From http://esoacademy.com/eso-pvp-and-cyrodiil-guide/

Resources

Resources are the three mills that surround each keep. There is the Lumber Mill, the Farm and the Mine. If your Alliance owns a keep thoses resources will level up over time and provide bonuses to the defense of the keep.

Lumber Mill

The Lumber Mill gives the doors of your keep more strength.

Farm

The Farm gives the NPC guards of your keep more Health.

Mine

The Mine gives all of the walls of your keep more strength to take more hits.

Resources are important and if your keep loses all of its resources to an enemy this will cut off transitus transportation.

Good to know, thank you. Any idea what the equivalent to a Right Click would be for us console users so that we can see the level?

runagate

I'm afraid I don't and Google wasn't much help. Most PvPers don't even know this info, strangely, but when I was in Einherjar in 2014 we did lots of crazy tests, like timing how long it took a resource to upgrade the associated Keep's wall strength and once leveled every little bit of health in Chalman. Even the freaking roof.

Also, I don't mean to give the impression that this is in fact what is being experienced by the OP and the others in the thread ZOS already replied to saying everything is normal as I personally don't know. I guess I should go check it out; I'm on PC.NA.

LMar

@runagate explained it perfectly @GrumpyDuckling . Here is also Brian Wheeler's very recent post on guards :

ZOS_BrianWheeler
mod
Each NPC is using the appropriate abilities as earned via the upgrade system and are not cross wired as they were during the initial launch of Morrowind several months ago. This was fixed on PC and Console platforms, and remains intact from that initial fix. This has been verified in code and in game by our QA department as well as Devs hopping online to verify.

That being said, with recent balance changes and adjustments to item sets, the guards may put forth more of a challenge. As a reminder, Resources are intended to be captured by a group of 2-4 players and while some players can take them solo, that is not the norm, nor what we balance guard abilities and difficulty around.

Gan Xing

I can take them solo (after about 5 minutes)

On the other hand, I don't like how they ignore cc immunity. Having eclipse and rune prison on me the entire time i'm trying to take the resource is annoying as hell...

Wish keep guards were stronger tho, and had larger view range.