Help with PVP

Megalithic_999

Hello everybody,

I just entered Cyrodiil for the first time today in a non cp campaign. I'm CP 300 so I've played a little, but I've never tried PVP. I'm having an extremely hard time even making a dent in an enemy player's HP. I also get absolutely melted in a matter of seconds. I was wondering if somebody would please help me figure out what I can do to even stay in the fight a little longer?

I'm playing imperial stamsorc.
23k health, 30k stam, 13k mag.
1100 spell resist, 1100 physical resist, 2100 crit resist.
2800 weapon damage with crit surge, but I also have weapon damage glyphs on my weapons and Briarheart set bonus weapon damage proc.
5 pieces of Briarheart set, 5 pieces of Toothrow set, and 2 piece Slimecraw monster set. All impen and stamina glyphs.
Also have the Undaunted 6% passive.

For abilities I'm running Brawler for damage and shield, Critical Rush for damage and 100% crit chance, Reverse Slice for damage, Crit Surge for damage and healing, and lastly Dark Deal/Streak.

This build has been super fun to play in PVE, but I'm not having any luck in PVP. Is there anything I can do to keep from being obliterated? Or do I have to change everything I have set up? I just don't stand a chance in Cyrodiil right now.

Thank you for your time!

Waffennacht

Your sets are really good for PvE and meh for PvP.

Consider proc sets like way of fire or unleashed terror for offense.

You dont need to do PvE damage in PvP. You need just enough to kill and the rest is to survive.

Consider sets like Eternal Vigor for sustain and survivability.

Slimecraw is better dropped in PvP.

For damage you can choose Balorgh or Velidreth.

Penetration is great in PvP too.

Your stats look solid tbf just the sets is all that need reworking

fred4

This is my current stamsorc build:

https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildData?id=291311

It's a little off-beat, but easy to play. It's a Crit Rush spamming build. Stats are for CP, but it has enough sustain to also play in no CP.

Regarding your set choices: Slimecraw and Toothrow can both be replaced by simply slotting Camouflaged Hunter. They are not sets I would recommend. Briarheart is a fairly highly-rated set for PvP and makes sense on stamsorc. There is only one problem with it: Stamsorc has big gaps in it's healing in my experience. As long as you're on the offensive you heal quite well from Crit Surge and a set like Briarheart. When you're on the defensive though, for example when you're being sniped, stamsorc healing is poor compared to other classes. So what choices do you have?

There is Rally, which gives you a heal, Major Brutality and enhances stam regen. A few problems with that: You got the Major Brutality already covered when using Crit Surge. You also got a better sustain option by slotting Bound Armaments and only so many skill slots. Rally is a very good skill and tough to not use in PvP, however I went a different route. I use Crit Surge, Bound Armaments, Eternal Vigor (the armor set) and Troll King. What this adds up to is 3.7K health regen when you need it. Eternal Vigor is a fantastic PvP set, especially on stamsorc. You get mag regen to Streak and Dark Deal. You get a 20% stam regen and health regen buff by slotting Bound Armaments and the Atro ultimate covers that buff on the back bar.

Since I am using Crit Rush as a spammable in this build, that means I have a guaranteed heal every second simply by spamming that. Resolving Vigor rounds out the healing. Get into the habit of casting Resolving Vigor followed by Poison Injection whenever you leave the back bar and you switch back to the front bar. Resolving Vigor is not a reactive heal to use when your health is down. It is best used regularly as a preventative heal. Note I do not count Dark Deal as a heal. Dark Deal is a sustain skill. It has a cast time, which means you're wide open while casting it - you can't block cast it - and you can be interrupted via bashing, Crushing Shock and Venom Arrow. The Dark Deal heal honestly just compensates for you being so open while casting it. It is sometimes valuable, but it is most emphatically not an emergency heal.

I play a bow back bar not least for the speed from dodge rolling (Major Expedition bow passive). Your defenses are Streak - if using that skill I recommend streaking through your opponent(s) rather than away from them - dodge rolling on the bow bar, plonking down the Atro and occasional blocking. If you're defending, get into the habit of casting Resolving Vigor into a dodge roll. This will both heal you and cause you to avoid damage in a single second, a so-called GCD (global cooldown). If you dodge roll without Vigor, you're wasting time in defensive situations and this is one of the reasons you may get killed. Other people have this down and they will therefore outplay you. Incidentally I believe you can also dodge roll during a Streak, which means there would appear to be no real reason to use Ball of Lightning.

Hurricane is indispensible. Every class needs their armor buff and those buff skills are generally good. In case of stamsorc we have damage, nightblade detection, healing via Crit Surge and a speed buff attached to that skill. Like I said: Indispensible. Certain buffs must always be kept up. In case of my stamsorc that is Hurricane, Crit Surge and I also tend to keep up Dark Deal for the ongoing stamina return. There are two beginner mistakes in relation to buffs. One is getting tunnel-visioned and letting your buffs - and especially your healing - drop off. This will get you killed, but you may also make the opposite mistake: Overbuffing. If you are too hesitant and keep buffing / defending, you hand the initiative to your opponent(s). That is not good and will also get you killed. If you are fully buffed, you have to trust that you can go on the attack, even as your health already starts to dwindle again. There will be Crit Surge heals coming in, after all.

In regards to Brawler, that skill can work, but is IMO something you use when (a) you have a Master's 2H weapon and (b) you're an experienced 1vXer. It's said to be a wonky skill with a weird cone that doesn't reliably hit people. I don't know how it stacks up for a beginner, but suspect the shield is not worth it. It's also an expensive skill to spam.

I just noticed: You list 5 skills. Does that mean you only run one bar? I hope not. Otherwise: Ouch. You can't do that.

Finally: duel. I started PvP via duelling and I don't see a better way. Try to find players in your CP range. PvP is brutal. It involves a lot of experience as well as muscle memory. Being obliterated is typical for a new PvPer. Practice gradually improves that.

Recapitated

Are you only using one ability bar?

Sergykid

1100 resistances? i suppose you mean 11k ? that's still low anyway, do you have a source for Major Ward buff? Critical is quite useless in pvp as people have crit resistance, so you should drop Toothrow. And Slimecraw was barely acceptable even before the nerf, now it's trash even for pve.

the not die it's important to have heal over times on you (like Vigor) and let them heal you. It means you don't stay for the enemy to attack you. You run, roll dodge, hide behind walls. You only attack when you are ready to, enemies don't act like target dummies like in pve.

to kill in pvp you need burst. Nobody dies from dots only. Have you done a dps parse on a 3m target dummy? not important the parse itself, but more a matter of how much you know your class and how well you play. You should do at least 20k dps with a pvp build, on the dummy.