Get better in pvp

General-spoke

Ok hi everyone ! I was wondering if there was any way in the game to fight in pvp against people who are exprerienced as i am in pvp, meaning not experienced. Because i dont really have any time to do anything when i try going in battleground or cyrodill, i always got one shot by ninjas without even seeing them.

KingYogi415

Even with 100 hours of pvp experience you will need a Zerg to not die right away.


If you want to learn to 1vX roll all 10 class combos to max and pvp with them. Only by understanding how every class works will you be able to play solo open world.

Big group are lots of fun and nessasary to learn the game. Hop into kyne and type LFG in chat.

VaranisArano

First off, let me begin by saying that you are going to die. You will die a lot. Its PVP, that comes with the territory. The key to getting better at PVP, I've found, is to survive long enough before you die to figure out what works for you and what doesn't.

Experience in PVP is largely a matter of surviving long enough to start to learn what works for you, what kills you and how to counter it, and figuring out how you like to play.

Some suggestions for surviving in PVP in general:

• Wear Impenetrable trait gear. Don't let the enemy get all that sweet critical damage.
• Be tankier than you would for PVE. In fact, if you are learning to PVP, get tanky. That might mean more health than you would normally run or more resistances than you would normally run.
• Use your self-heals proactively. Healing is halved in PVP, so trying to burst heal yourself when you need it is much harder. Its better to have your heals-over-time ticking before you get into the danger zone. Otherwise, you might already be in execute range by the time you realize you need healing.

Suggestions for surviving in Cyrodiil:

• Group up or find a group to follow. Surviving is a lot easier when you've got numbers on your side. With the removal of AOE caps in Update 17, you'll be better off in an organized group than in a disorganized group.
• Pay attention to the battle. If an enemy group looks really organized, don't tangle with them. If your side is retreating, retreat with them. If your side is pushing, push with them. The more you pay attention to what's happening on the battlefield, the longer you'll survive.
• Don't let yourself get farmed. If you keep running into the same group of players and they keep killing you, there's no shame in doing something else for a while, having fun, and making AP. You can't kill everyone and there's no point in getting killed again and again.
• When moving between keeps without a large group, don't stick on the main roads. That's where the gankers tend to lurk because they know lone players are coming on the main roads and choke points.
• Hold block while capturing resource and keep flags. Bombers are back in business with Update 17, so don't die to a Vicious Death bomb if you can help it. If you see the Destro ulti bomb coming, roll dodge the heck out of the way.

Suggestions for surviving in Battlegrounds:
Keep in mind that Battlegrounds in CP -enabled now but will be No CP once Update 17 goes live. This will bring some big changes, mostly that you will need more sustain and resource recovery and that proc sets will be more effective because there is less mitigation from CP.

• If you want to kill players, build for burst damage.
• Pay careful attention to what is killing you. If its just sheer burst damage, you may need to get tankier, healthier, or gain more resistances. If its lack of sustain, get more recovery. If its purgeable skills, slot a purge, and so on. Battlegrounds is situational and you can tweak your build to fit the specialized demands of a 4v4v4 arena much easier than you can for the much broader range of Cyrodiil combat.

Beyond this, the best comprehensive advice for surviving in PVP is Joy_Division's guide: https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/360956/joy-s-advice-for-midyear-mayhem-event/p1

I hope this helps! I was a pure PVE player when the PVP bug bit me. What really helped me improve at PVP was following groups around until I found an organized raid that I really liked. What I learned there has made me a much better solo player. Then, I also really improved by putting my healer in Plague Doctor for a while. The extra health allowed me to survive much longer so I had more chances to learn how fights went down and what skills were effective and how to counter certain types of players. I've since gone back to light armor on that healer and with my new experience I feel just as tanky.

King_Thelon

Learn from the best, or die like the rest.

Thogard

Ok so aside from the cliche advice, let me give you some pointers that I rarely see on the boards:

1. Get miat’s PvP alerts. It’ll stop working soon. But using it helps you know what’s going on around you and will help you identify certain sounds and abilities so that you won’t even need it anymore
2. Get Buff Timers addon. Making sure all of your buffs are up all of the time (including vigor) is extremely important. Don’t get distracted and forget this the second the fight starts like 90% of PvPers.
3. Get an MMO mouse, map your skills to mouse buttons you can hit with your thumb. Your left hand needs to be on movement duty 100% of the time
4. Break free / interupt should be remapped to one button (I use middle mouse button), and even more importantly, left + right click needs to be unmapped!
5. Dodgeroll should be one button, not a double tap that sometimes doesn’t work. I use the alt button. (Z is my new “close window” button)
6. Turn on “Nameplates” in game and make sure you enable enemy health bars at all times. This helps immensely with target selection.
7. Tab targettkng. Use it. If someone is giving you a lot of trouble in a BG, tab target them. Boom. You can now see them through *** walls. In group vs group fights, tab target a healer.
8. Burst timing. The best time for you to use your dmg ultimate is at the exact same time that your groupmates use theirs. Conversely, the worst time to use a defensive ult is when a group mate uses theirs.
9. When in doubt, kite it out.
10. Don’t chase people blindly around corners unless you already know who’s going with you and what’s waiting for you on the other side,
11. “Continuous Attack” (resource / dmg buff from taking a resource) is OP and should have as close to 100% uptime as possible.
12. When considering what your next skill should be, Priority #1 is staying alive. Priority #2 is landing a killing blow. Doing damage that will get healed is not a priority at all, and should be replaced with heavy attacks to better prepare you for priority #1 and 2. Being able to tell the difference between killing damage and damage that will get healed takes experience.
13. If someone kills you and you have no idea how they did it, ask them. Most good players are really nice people. Nobody got good at PvP on their own. Good players often make really complex combos look easy, but don’t let that discourage you.
14. Use a minimap that shows you where your group mates are. If you are too far away from them then you are setting yourself up as an easy target.
15. Conversely, if you’re all clumped on top of each other and standing still, you’re gonna have a bad time. Rule of thumb is to stay out of melee attack range from your group mates, but inside of stampede range, preferably closer.
16. Save the “Baby’s first Stam potion” for PvE. Use real pots in PvP. Yes, they’re expensive. Most things that give you an advantage in PvP are.
17. Gap closers are not just a great way to catch someone, they’re also a great way to get away from someone (or a group of someones). Especially the gap closers that snare.
18. Mag sorc or Stam Warden are the best two classes for “beginner” PvPers because of how well rounded and versatile they are.
19. In group vs group fights, “where” you are is often more important than “what” you are doing. Do not compromise your position just for a chance of getting a kill.

And most importantly

20. Be a nice guy by showing those less skilled than yourself how to PvP. For example, whenever I kill a nightblade, it’s because they weren’t crouched / hiding. Its clear that they forgot how to crouch, and I want to help them, so what I do is go over to their body and demonstrate the “crouch” / sneak mechanic directly on top of them. I’ll often spam crouch just to make sure they can clearly see the mechanic I’m demonstrating for them. It’s very helpful - I’m sure they all appreciate my free coaching. And my nutsack.

imredneckson

General-spoke wrote: »

Ok hi everyone ! I was wondering if there was any way in the game to fight in pvp against people who are exprerienced as i am in pvp, meaning not experienced. Because i dont really have any time to do anything when i try going in battleground or cyrodill, i always got one shot by ninjas without even seeing them.

YouTube is going to be you best tutor and dying will be your best teacher. If you can join up with a guild who is willing and able to teach you then join I wouldn't be where I'm at now without my buddies teaching me and helping me out. PS what platform are you on and faction?

geonsocal

Thogard wrote: »

And most importantly

20. Be a nice guy by showing those less skilled than yourself how to PvP. For example, whenever I kill a nightblade, it’s because they weren’t crouched / hiding. Its clear that they forgot how to crouch, and I want to help them, so what I do is go over to their body and demonstrate the “crouch” / sneak mechanic directly on top of them. I’ll often spam crouch just to make sure they can clearly see the mechanic I’m demonstrating for them. It’s very helpful - I’m sure they all appreciate my free coaching.

hahahahahahaha...nice

Ragnarock41

Thogard wrote: »

Ok so aside from the cliche advice, let me give you some pointers that I rarely see on the boards:

1. Get miat’s PvP alerts. It’ll stop working soon. But using it helps you know what’s going on around you and will help you identify certain sounds and abilities so that you won’t even need it anymore
2. Get Buff Timers addon. Making sure all of your buffs are up all of the time (including vigor) is extremely important. Don’t get distracted and forget this the second the fight starts like 90% of PvPers.
3. Get an MMO mouse, map your skills to mouse buttons you can hit with your thumb. Your left hand needs to be on movement duty 100% of the time
4. Break free / interupt should be remapped to one button (I use middle mouse button), and even more importantly, left + right click needs to be unmapped!
5. Dodgeroll should be one button, not a double tap that sometimes doesn’t work. I use the alt button. (Z is my new “close window” button)
6. Turn on “Nameplates” in game and make sure you enable enemy health bars at all times. This helps immensely with target selection.
7. Tab targettkng. Use it. If someone is giving you a lot of trouble in a BG, tab target them. Boom. You can now see them through *** walls. In group vs group fights, tab target a healer.
8. Burst timing. The best time for you to use your dmg ultimate is at the exact same time that your groupmates use theirs. Conversely, the worst time to use a defensive ult is when a group mate uses theirs.
9. When in doubt, kite it out.
10. Don’t chase people blindly around corners unless you already know who’s going with you and what’s waiting for you on the other side,
11. “Continuous Attack” (resource / dmg buff from taking a resource) is OP and should have as close to 100% uptime as possible.
12. When considering what your next skill should be, Priority #1 is staying alive. Priority #2 is landing a killing blow. Doing damage that will get healed is not a priority at all, and should be replaced with heavy attacks to better prepare you for priority #1 and 2. Being able to tell the difference between killing damage and damage that will get healed takes experience.
13. If someone kills you and you have no idea how they did it, ask them. Most good players are really nice people. Nobody got good at PvP on their own. Good players often make really complex combos look easy, but don’t let that discourage you.
14. Use a minimap that shows you where your group mates are. If you are too far away from them then you are setting yourself up as an easy target.
15. Conversely, if you’re all clumped on top of each other and standing still, you’re gonna have a bad time. Rule of thumb is to stay out of melee attack range from your group mates, but inside of stampede range, preferably closer.
16. Save the “Baby’s first Stam potion” for PvE. Use real pots in PvP. Yes, they’re expensive. Most things that give you an advantage in PvP are.
17. Gap closers are not just a great way to catch someone, they’re also a great way to get away from someone (or a group of someones). Especially the gap closers that snare.
18. Mag sorc or Stam Warden are the best two classes for “beginner” PvPers because of how well rounded and versatile they are.
19. In group vs group fights, “where” you are is often more important than “what” you are doing. Do not compromise your position just for a chance of getting a kill.

And most importantly

20. Be a nice guy by showing those less skilled than yourself how to PvP. For example, whenever I kill a nightblade, it’s because they weren’t crouched / hiding. Its clear that they forgot how to crouch, and I want to help them, so what I do is go over to their body and demonstrate the “crouch” / sneak mechanic directly on top of them. I’ll often spam crouch just to make sure they can clearly see the mechanic I’m demonstrating for them. It’s very helpful - I’m sure they all appreciate my free coaching. And my nutsack.

last one is the best advice, made me very popular in sotha sil.
even the emps are riding my coattails

DKsUnite

My advice. Join a dueling guild or duel with people around your experience level. Learn from your mistakes. Make sure to master the class you play first before trying others. You dont have to play as another class to know it's weaknesses. The longer you practice the better you will be. It took me months of dueling back in patches 1.3-1.4 to learn how to properly pvp and then i went into open world/groups and that thought me other things and then eventually i put it all together.

Datthaw

Thogard wrote: »

And most importantly

20. Be a nice guy by showing those less skilled than yourself how to PvP. For example, whenever I kill a nightblade, it’s because they weren’t crouched / hiding. Its clear that they forgot how to crouch, and I want to help them, so what I do is go over to their body and demonstrate the “crouch” / sneak mechanic directly on top of them. I’ll often spam crouch just to make sure they can clearly see the mechanic I’m demonstrating for them. It’s very helpful - I’m sure they all appreciate my free coaching. And my nutsack.

Lol

Bobby_V_Rockit

Fast reaction times, watch when you or your zerg are being lead away and brake off into smaller groups towards ambush. Stick together and look around.

CompM4s

Duel everyone. If you can do well in duels, chances are you can manage in cyrodiil.

General-spoke

Thank you all for those complete responses i'll work on that !

@imredneckson i'm on Pc EU, daggerfall covenent