PVP for the No-PVP Pacifists

VaranisArano

Reworking my earlier guide into something a little more general-purpose for everyone who, for whatever reason, doesn't want to or can't PVP.

I want to be very upfront about one thing: You cannot avoid the risk of PVP if you queue up for a PVP zone like Cyrodiil or Imperial City. You do not have to fight back or kill other players, but Cyrodiil, Imperial City, and (obviously) Battlegrounds are all PVP-enabled zones. PVP will happen. If you queue into a PVP-enabled zone, you are 100% consenting to engage in PVP and should expect that other people will fight you. Do not expect that people will respect questers and you will be pleased and gratified if it happens instead of disappointed when people PVP against you in a PVP enabled zone

You don't have to fight other players.
There's no guarantee that other players won't fight you if they find you.
We clear?

However, ZOS likes players to play ALL of ESO if they want ALL of the rewards, and ZOS has a habit of gating rewards like Anniversary Jubilee Boxes, Midyear Mayhem rewards, transmute stones, Vigor, Caltrops, style pages, Skyshards, and various achievements behind playing PVP content.

There are ways to get these rewards without actually having to do any fighting or killing other players, so long as you accept the risk that other players will fight and probably kill your character. There are a few ways to make AP without doing any PVP at all.

What you need to do to prepare:
You need to minimize your exposure and time spent doing quests. To that end, prepare in these ways.

• Queue into one of the lower population campaigns. Seriously, the less people around, the better it is for you. Usually ZOS spins up new campaigns for Events which are perfect for this. If you can do the questing at non-primetime hours, even better.
• Use your fast horse. Having a fast horse will allow you to reach distant quest areas faster, escape other players, and complete your quests quicker. It also makes it much less painful if you get killed and have to ride back to your quest area. If you don't have Rapid Manuevers unlocked, do the "Welcome to Cyrodiil" quest you get at your Alliance Base - there's no PVP involved and you'll get enough AP to unlock Rapid Manuevers which is a big speed boost for your mount. If you are new to Cyrodiil, I recommend doing the quest instead of just talking to the Grand Warlord because it explains the transitus shrines to "fast travel" around Cyrodiil pretty well.
• Get stealthy. Bring invisibility potions or other stealthy gear if you want to avoid other players. Be aware, stealth works on players but players also have means of detecting you! Use line of sight to your advantage. Finally, if you are creeping around in stealth, other players who see you may assume you are a ganker waiting to pounce, so don't be surprised if you do get attacked.
• Get tanky. For a pacifist run, this may seem odd. After all, you aren't going to fight back. However, gankers often go for low health, squishy targets so by getting tankier, you have a better chance of not getting targeted.

Cyrodiil Quests for Pacifists

Scouting: (VERY EASY) Obtained from your Alliance Base quest boards, this quest will send you to a random enemy-controlled resource, where the quest will prompt you to stop, jot down a few notes and return to base. This is easily completed from stealth, usually requires lots of riding.

Battle: Capture a Resource - (MEDIUM) Obtained from your Alliance Base quest boards, the quest will send you to capture a random enemy controlled resource. You can get credit by being presetn when your alliance captured the resource or you can solo a resource yourself. As long as no enemy players show up to defend the resource, this is an entirely PVE fight. There will be guards defending a tower, worker NPCs, and a few wandering guards. You need to kill the guards standing on the flag and stand on it long enough for the flag to change color to your alliance. Other people may have slightly different tactics they can share. When I solo a resource, I typically kill the guards at the entrance to the tower along with any nearby wanderers, go into the tower to kill the mage at the top, then rush out to kill the four guards on the flag. (I save my ultimate for players, but for a pacifist run, go ahead and ulti drop the guards on the flag.) The guards do respawn, so it may take some practice to get the timing right so you can kill them all and flip the flag. Be aware that other players can see on their map (and on PC, their addons) when a resource flag is being flipped by another alliance.

Conquest: (HARD) Capture 9 Resources - same thing as above, just 9 different resources, obtained from the Conquest quest board.

Capture a Keep/Outpost: (HARD) If you have the quest active and you are on the grounds of the keep or outpost when it is captured by your alliance, you will get credit for the quest, whether or not you participated in the battle. Obviously, there's a high risk of PVP involvement with this one, even though technically you don't have to PVP to complete it. The Conquest version requires 3 different keeps.

Conquest: Capture All 3 Towns - (HARD) Obtained from the Conquest Board, this quest requires you to take the flags (or be present when the town is captured for your alliance) at Vlastarus, Bruma, Cropsford. Each town has 3 flags that all need to be turned. Two flags have NPC guards, and the last flag has no guards. Like with resources, the guards will respawn and can turn the flag back to their alliance, so I recommend starting with the non-NPC flag so you have time to kill the others and flip their flags. You may run into enemy players who are questing in the town or enemy PVPers looking to capture the town for their alliance transitus. Bruma has a a Dark Anchor which can also complicate matters. While you can do this method, its one of the harder ways to get your event ticket compared to...

Cyrodiil Town Quests (VERY EASY)
The Cyrodiil Town Quests are easy, entirely PVE objective quests where the real threat comes from other players. Remember that Bruma, Vlastarus, and Cropsford have Alliance flags and matching NPCs who may oppose you if you are the other alliances or help you if you are the matching one. Also remember that even though you are pursuing a PVE quest, the entire zone of Cyrodiil is PVP-enabled and that some PVPers can and will watch these quest spots so they can easily fill their own PVP Bounty quests. In short, its really easy questing unless an enemy player spots you and then it gets really hard
Bruma: https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Bruma
Chorrol: https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Chorrol ; https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Weynon_Priory
Cheydinhal: https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Cheydinhal
Vlastarus: https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Vlastarus
Cropsford: https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Cropsford

Capture/Recapture an Elder Scroll
You must have the correct Elder Scroll quest and be in Cyrodiil.
Your alliance must capture the Elder Scroll and place it in its Scroll Temple or in a home keep.
When the Elder Scroll is placed in its Temple/Home Keep, everyone in Cyrodiil with the quest gets credit for it.
This method for Pacifists is best used on a populated, competitive campaign, because you are depending entirely on the PVPers in your alliance to go out, captue/recapture a scroll, and share the quest with you (unless you were lucky enough to get it from the Grand Warlord before your alliance grabbed the scroll). Be aware that once your alliance holds the Elder Scroll, you cannot obtain that quest from the Grand Warlord and it must be shared with you.

Skyshards
Most of the skyshards are accessible at all times. Four of them are special. They are locked behind the enemy faction gates near the scroll temples. You cannot reach them unless their gate is open.
To open a gate, your faction must capture certain keeps. The three keeps nearest to the scroll gates are called the tri-keeps. A gate is open when the enemy holds the keep nearest to that gate AND the keep that forms the point of the triangle.
When a gate is open, you can ride in and get the skyshard. The gate is defended by NPCs and probably players. Fortunately, players from your own faction will most likely be forming up to grab the Elder Scroll from the temple, so you can follow them in, split off and grab the skyshard. Its pretty risky, as the enemy knows that players want the skyshard, so be stealthy and quick!

Imperial City Quests for Pacifists
If you have AP to spare, buy the item Sigil of Imperial Retreat, which allows you to port back to your alliance's sewer base.

Main Quest: The main quest of Imperial City is obtained by talking to the Drake of Blades in your alliance's sewer base, then completing a quest in each of the city's districts. The difficulty varies by district - some of the bosses are more difficult than others. I found that the Temple District and the Arena were the most difficult.

Scouting (Imperial City): (EASY) Obtained in your Imperial City Alliance Base, this tasks you to go to a District and put a marker on your rez point. https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Scouting_the_Memorial_District

Battlegrounds quests for Pacifists
If you don't want to fight other players, I don't actually recommend Battlegrounds as its a 4v4v4 fight. However, I could possibly see someone doing a Healer run and playing full group support as a "Pacifist".
If you do that, load up on heals, buffs, and stay close to your teammates. Battlegrounds is No CP, so build for resistances and regen appropriately.
Please do not "leech" off your teammates by sitting in the respawn point and not ever joining the fight.

How to Make AP Without Fighting At All
1. Grab every single Log-in reward that has AP, without fail
2. Buy repair kits from Alliance Siege merchants or guild stores for gold, then repair keep walls and resources. If you are alert, you can transit away from a keep once it comes under attack and never have to fight. This is a slow way to gain AP, but effective. Many players pushing for emperor repair structures to keep their AP gains constantly increasing.

What to do when you die (because its PVP and everyone dies)

• Try not to get upset. Everyone dies in PVP-enabled zones, especially if you are choosing not to fight back for pacifist reasons. More power to you for trying anyway!
• Rez up at your nearest home keep, ride back and try again.
• If you keep dying to the same person, you've got a couple choices. 1) Try to quest somewhere else. 2) Go to zone chat and say "LFG for Town Quests" or form your own group so you can get assistance and be less of a target, 3) Go to zone chat, say "So-and-so is being a jerk to questers, can anyone help me out?" The PVPers will probably laugh and make fun of both you and the ganker and maybe someone will swing by and clear him out for you or offer to group up and help with the questing.
• Ignore the jerks. Some PVPers can be rude with they kill you. Don't let them stress you out and the best way to deal with them is to ignore them. Telling them you are a quester or replying to or with hate tells usually only makes it worse. If you do receive a tell you think is against the TOS, however, go ahead and report that.

I learned to like PVP over time. I've known a lot of people who love PVP, people who've tried it and liked it a little, people who tried it and didn't like it, and people who for varied and entirely valid reasons really don't like it at all.

Yet PVP is a part of ESO, has been since the beginning, and until ZOS changes their vision for ESO and separates PVE and PVP, we will see players coming to PVP for the PVP-gated rewards. Its my hope that this guide helps you obtain your desires.

Best of luck!

VaranisArano

A note from me:
I used to be a PVE-only player. I came to ESO from Skyrim, so I was totally opposed to the idea that I would ever try PVP. Except I really, really wanted those Master Angler fish!
So I went in to PVP. I didn't prepare. I didn't want to fight anyone. I was prepared to die a lot to get what I wanted.
I died. A lot. Slaughterfished. Ganked. I spent a lot of time ducking and hiding down by that ocean fishing hole right by the AD gates.
I was a pacifistic quester in a PVP-enabled zone. I fully accepted that PVP was going to happen to me if another player found me because that's what Cyrodiil and Impeial City are for - PVP.

Now, I've since gone back to PVP to try it out and have come to love it. I found a great guild and PVP regularly. Not every player comes to love PVP through exposure to it even though I certainly did. There's one thing I've learned from my experience. PVP is an all-around better experience when you prepare for PVP. ESO's PVP has a steep learning curve, its true. Preparing for it make it that less punishing. (Best Source I've found for preparation for PVP: @Joy_Division 's Advice for Midyear Mayhem )

I also fully understand that some people do not like and never will like ESO's PVP. There's a ton of varied, absolutely valid reasons for that.

However, I will ask something of the PVE players coming to Cyrodiil and Imperial City for the Anniversary, Midyear Mayhem, and other festivals: Don't queue up for a PVP-enabled zone and walk out of the Alliance Bases and expect to avoid all the risk of PVP. Don't walk into a PVP-enabled zone expecting guaranteed safe conduct just because there's an event on - there is no "safe conduct" and that's fully intended by the design of Cyrodiil and Imperial City. Don't leave the safety of your Alliance Base and complain when members of the other Alliances kill you.

Once you leave your Alliance Base, the best you can do is minimize your risk. That's true for all of us, PVEer and PVPer alike. If that's not your cup of tea, there is no shame in staying out of PVP-enabled zones.

I love ESO's PVP now even though I used to hate the very idea. I want everyone to have a good time during festivals, whether you enjoy PVP or if you hate it but want those rewards anyway, just like I wanted those Master Angler fish.

So know what you are getting into, prepare accordingly, and good luck getting everything you want out of your time in PVP!

Ertosi

For this week's special Anniversary event:

To add a few tips which work well for me:

• Play smart. If one place is being repeatedly attacked, going elsewhere is a great option. I like to focus on the Cyrodiil town quests personally. If one of them is being pestered by other alliances, there are 4 other quest towns to choose from. If it feels like all of them are getting pestered, there are several other campaigns to choose from.
• Factions have been more peaceable with each other earlier in the day, at least during the week. This probably won't continue over the weekend, but will probably start again on Monday. It's been pretty fun to see, super early in the morning, all three factions running the quests together without conflict; sometimes even delves!
• Just because a quest town has a lot of fighting doesn't mean you can't simply ignore the fighting and continue the quests. Often it's still pretty easy to wait a tick until there's a lull to finish up one quest and pick up the next.
• Don't attack the flags. That only guarantees the owning faction is going to come after you, when they might have left you alone otherwise.

What doesn't work:

• Despite jumping up and down repeatedly being a universal way to signal "not aggressive" in other games, I've not seen anyone back off in Cyrodiil just because you wouldn't attack them back. The type of personality that enjoys a one sided fight will have no trouble taking the free kill. What works much better is high health and lots of shields; they'll get bored and bugger off soon enough.

Strider__Roshin

Do you have a guide for PvPers that struggle to stay awake doing PvE? And before you suggest caffeine, just know I'm one of those guys that complain about there being too much blood in my caffeine system.

VaranisArano

Daus wrote: »

Do you have a guide for PvPers that struggle to stay awake doing PvE? And before you suggest caffeine, just know I'm one of those guys that complain about there being too much blood in my caffeine system.

What I find helps me:
For quests, roleplaying through the quest through the persona of my character. If your character doesnt have much of a personality besides "PVPer", I find that acting genre savvy and snapping witty comments at NPCs makes it more bearable.

For group content, run with PUGs. When you've done the same boss fight 20+ times, its surprising how much fun getting random teammates can be. Sometimes they are a drag - treat it like a challenge. Most of the time, random teammates are better entertainment than the boss, and help make each run unique and interesting.