Ganking Etiquette in Imperial City

bharathitman

I started ganking on my nightblade recently and I find it to be a good playstyle for short sessions. However, quite often, and especially during this event I find that most people die in a single combo or within 3-4 seconds very easily. It's clear that most of them are PvE'rs, and there is no denying that some of these players give you good Telvar (which is the main reason why most people run Imperial City anyway). At times even players with 30+ alliance rank die in a single combo, and similarly there are low ranked players who give a good fight.

So my question to fellow players who gank is this: Do you guys follow any rules as such? How do you draw a line between ganking and griefing?
Personally I never gank a helpless player twice.

zaria

Its a bit nasty to kill solo questers just after the two tickets, they also carry few telvar.
If people carry plenty of Telvar they are doing IC and are fair game.

It can be hard to separate the two in IC however.

That is why while guild has an house rule not to engage solo pve players in Cyrodil not much so a rule in IC.
Area to cramped and hard to get overview its mostly kill on contact.
The Cyrodil rule give some fun result like the guy who sneaked trough our group feeling very stealthy.

Vevvev

If they're not at a CP rank I tend to leave them alone. The other day I was watching a couple of AD trying to do the Imperial Arena quest and they were nowhere near level 50. As I watched them this CP 500-something EP ran in and tried to kill them both. I killed the EP in just a couple of seconds before disappearing off into the shadows with the help of the stage 4 vampire perk.

Sometimes its difficult to tell the difference between someone doing quests and actually participating in the PVP activities so I typically stick to defending/attacking flags and engaging in ongoing fights scattered around the map. Also if a player is on my side of sewers they are fair game since they're either there to gank my allies or farm our bosses. Can't have them doing either.

Aisleyne

I'm not into ganking personally, but I've seen people waiting by the ballistae and ganking low level and poorly equipped PvErs a few times during the event. I think that's in really poor form personally. There's little to no combat involved in that daily and practically no telvar associated with it so really it serves no purpose other than to prevent new players from getting their tickets.

jaws343

I don't really gank much, but if the symbol over the player's head doesn't match my alliance, I kill them. I really don't care what they are doing. Been bitten too many times by letting a player run only for them to return with more to kill me.

hexnotic

If you mainly play pve and need to do IC/ Cyro for whatever reason I think rolling a toon that is built for stealth/ gank playstyle is the way to go. You will be able to move quickly in stealth, and do big dmg easily. This makes questing much safer! That's what I ended up doing with my main toon who is nightblade.

As for etiquette I personally just try to kill everything and everyone that I can. A lot of the times I'm the one dying tho so rip lol

Mortiis13

I think u can c easily who is their for pvpve or only for pve. Those who pve only are mostly in the outer ring and bashing trash. Pvpve running like chickens through all rings hunting bosses and players while ignore trash.

I was Ic with my pve magnecro hunting bosses for the malacath lead. That day was nice cause every ganker helped me or waited atleast till i killed the boss before they 1 shot me

Donny_Vito

You need to gank in IC more often, I say. People get too comfortable in there thinking they can PvE bosses and farm TelVar without any worries. Keep 'em on edge!

thorwyn

I was Ic with my pve magnecro hunting bosses for the malacath lead. That day was nice cause every ganker helped me or waited atleast till i killed the boss before they 1 shot me

Completely different story here. I was killing a boss and two people ganked me at 10% boss hp, then finished him. I was thinking about getting mad for a second, but then.. it's PvP, so who cares.

Raammzzaa

In IC, or in Cyrodiil, if the victim is not 810 then I usually avoid ganking them multiple times in a row. That’s just my personal preference. I almost always kill them once though - I wasn’t a day one player and I can remember the first couple times I got ganked as a low CP player. That sense of danger that I felt stepping into Cyrodiil in those days is the reason that I kept playing the game for a long time.

Onomos

As one of those PvE folks, I can say if you don't know the risks, you have no business being there. I appreciate when someone sees I'm just doing quests or skyshard hunting. But the nature of IC is a battleground. You can't trust 'em if you can see the icon above their head. The etiquette is nice, but I won't bank on it if I'm in there. I have to be ready to fight and die. Especially the die part.

VaranisArano

I don't gank, but I do expect gankers to attack me at any time and prepare accordingly when I'm in IC. Detect pots and keeping an obvious buff active helps a fair bit.

Tryxus

Back when I was still a Nightblade, my motto was:

ArchMikem

I hate being attacked when I'm there simply to get some PvE done. Therefore when I'm there for PvP, but come across PvErs, I'll watch their actions, see that they're doing a quest, and leave them be. If they see me, I'll attempt an Olive Block. If they decide I should be removed from their sight by force, so be it.

RT01100111

There is no rule. It's called kill or be killed.

ImmortalCX

Aisleyne wrote: »

I'm not into ganking personally, but I've seen people waiting by the ballistae and ganking low level and poorly equipped PvErs a few times during the event. I think that's in really poor form personally. There's little to no combat involved in that daily and practically no telvar associated with it so really it serves no purpose other than to prevent new players from getting their tickets.

This.

Some AD were camping the quest objectives. I've had to drop a quest and take another in a different district more than once because of griefing.

I_killed_Vivec

Donny_Vito wrote: »

You need to gank in IC more often, I say. People get too comfortable in there thinking they can PvE bosses and farm TelVar without any worries. Keep 'em on edge!

Gankers are scum of the earth, but I respect this view...

DarcyMardin

I’m not a PvP’er, nor am I very good at Pvp’ing, but I have been going to both Cyrodiil and IC on multiple characters every day during this event. I expect to get attacked and killed, and 9 times out of 10, that’s exactly what happens. It doesn’t bother me in Cyrodiil, but I doubt I’ll ever return to IC after this. The *only* reason I’m there is to do the quests and get the stupid tickets. I’ve been ganked while I’m obviously questing or seeking skyshards far more often in IC than in Cyrodiil. While I’m sure it’s fun for the gankers to show off their prowess, it’s a great, big yawn for me.

If the goal of this IC ticket thing was to get more people playing in IC, it’s failed for me. Cyrodiil is beautiful wide open countryside with some interesting battles, but IC is just a dark, gloomy, gank-circle.

WastedJoker

I'm mostly PvE and it hasn't been as bad as some people make out. If the district is overrun just die then release to a new district and pick up a quest there. Often you end up pretty much mostly completing a few quests by the time you finish one which serves you well for the next couple of days.

SidraWillowsky

"Ganking etiquette" is an oxymoron.

gatekeeper13

Some people who die instantly after a combo is because they can't break free after you stun them. Happened to me many many times, full stamina and break free not working (not even after 4-5 tries) which leaves me easy prey. When it works, I almost never get killed it after someone ganked me.

But generally yes, many people get killed because they are inexperienced PVE players.

OtarTheMad

I have always done it this way: In the sewers, everyone is fair game. However in the districts, I usually wait to get attacked, or if I see someone fighting another player I may go after the winner.

Although I bet some players have seen me as a free kill PvEer truth be told I just finished my quest, got my 2 tickets and you helped me with a port back to base. (during events anyway)

EDIT- I honestly don't even care when groups camp the bases in the sewers because I just climb into a district and then go back down into the sewers behind the group. If I want to get back and preserve my Tel Var I just port into Cyrodiil and deposit them and then port back into IC.

coercer02neb18_ESO

Call me old-school but I am used to the MMORPG games with PvP servers where you can attack anyone, anywhere. aKa WoW, EQ2 etc. ESO already has an insane amount of protection for people wanting to level, quest etc, limiting pvp to Cyro or the 4v2v3 BG games so if I see someone in IC, I will attack regardless of what they are doing as its one of the 2 open pvp zones. I dont even consider myself a 'ganker' per say but you know what you signing up for by going to IC.

FrancisCrawford

I got all my daily quests "banked" before the event, generally playing at very off hours. (Also, I have one very stealthy character.)

I also got the lead I cared about the most quite quickly in the sewers back then.

Otherwise, there's nothing good enough about the PvE for me to enjoy it enough to make up for the annoyance of being ganked. And I haven't PvPed enough overall to learn how to break free and do anything else in less than about 3 seconds. (Does Break Free consume a gcd?)

Sarannah

For me, PvPers/gankers absolutely ruined the PvP-event. When you are simply PvE player vs PvE player, it makes for some interesting battles.

Getting ganked from the shadows 10 times in a row when exiting the sewerbase, trying to PvE, is just toxic. Dying every 5 seconds is not fun for other players. Please never ever do a PvP event again!

PS: The first 2-3 days of the event were 'ok', as it was mostly only PvE players, and barely any gankers.

Fur_like_snow

No gods no masters no rules.

MasterSpatula

I don't know about "etiquette," but if you're camping quest objectives, I don't really care who you're killing, Volunteer or Grand Overlord, I have no use for you and no respect for you.

tsaescishoeshiner

Have you considered playing with your food? Just stun them and then run around them clearly not attacking lol. Very worth it, 10/10 recommended, keeps em on their toes. And if they DO try to attack you, there's your go to drop them dead!!

I'm personally of the vibe that anything goes in IC except teabagging, which is really bad manners. Stamblades who gank repeatedly at the sewer entrance push it, though. I respect the skill but it is frustrating how it's much easier for them to poof away than it is to catch them. But as a Magblade I know cloak already isn't as reliable as it seems to be, and, hey, that's just IC

jaws343

tsaescishoeshiner wrote: »

Have you considered playing with your food? Just stun them and then run around them clearly not attacking lol. Very worth it, 10/10 recommended, keeps em on their toes. And if they DO try to attack you, there's your go to drop them dead!!

I'm personally of the vibe that anything goes in IC except teabagging, which is really bad manners. Stamblades who gank repeatedly at the sewer entrance push it, though. I respect the skill but it is frustrating how it's much easier for them to poof away than it is to catch them. But as a Magblade I know cloak already isn't as reliable as it seems to be, and, hey, that's just IC

You can also combat gate campers in IC by going up into the district that has a sewer entrance closest to your gate and hitting them from the flank.

KaGaOri

Through about last two days I've ran into gankers in IC waiting at quest objectives, who let me clear out all the daedra, then attack from stealth when my health, magicka and stamina are the lowest. Mostly attack when character goes into interaction with quest objective, to put me further behind the loop. Like, dying (repeatedly) is normal part of PvP, but c'mon! Don't even care about loosing telvar at this point, but dailies take forever to do this way.

Wandering_Immigrant

I feel camping by quest objectives is poor etiquette. Especially during the event when someone might not have a lot of free time and is just trying to get tickets before the day resets. I know for myself I don't have much free time during my work week, usually just enough to do writs while I drink my coffee, so during the event I often have to decide between writs or tickets, I work long days so by the time I get home the day will have reset for both.

Everything else is fair game though, I might even setup a good old fashioned flag trap if I'm feeling frisky. But waiting by quest objectives, or to a lesser degree by the sewer entrance, those aren't traps you earned.

I also don't target the same person twice, if they see me and want a rematch, cool, but I'm not doing it to ruin people's day, just playing within the spirit of the zone. I might even unstealth when I see them again if the first go was a good fight, to give them a chance at redemption. Of course, if I see them a few times over a period of time that statute of limitations runs out and they become fair game again.