From mediocre to miserable or why am I suddenly lousy at PVP?

Megaschwann · June 2022

Hello everyone!
I've been playing ESO for over 900 hours now, at least 60% of it PVP. As expected, I was lousy at first, which was totally fine, and then I slowly improved.
At some point I was so solid mediocrity I would say. Expressed in numbers: 12 kills/ 4 deaths/ 16 assists on average (actually only do BGs). Sometimes a little better, sometimes worse.
Once I was even reported because I killed a whole team of 4 alone ^^
Well, but at some point it didn't work anymore. Meanwhile I'm happy if I manage more than 4 kills and less than 10 deaths. I have no clue whats the cause of this. I've tried a lot of other sets, gotten the psijik skill line, joined the Society of Dead Drinkers (aka Vampires) etc... but nothing helps.
Does anyone have any idea why this might be? Or do some of you feel the same way?

Yakidafi · June 2022

Well I do not know you

But from your writing about psijic skill line and vampire I would say it might be something to do with your builds that are not good enough for today and how you want to play. Also there is the fact that today players can be tanky have ton of dmg and heal A LOT at the same time, so it have become very tedious to kill someone, kind of boring to fight actually. Worse if the other team have a dedicated healer. Aswell that the movement speed of a character today is way faster than it were a few years ago.

I Feel similar to you. I have not played for a long time and came back about 2 months ago and I have to redo every character from scratch or close too for PVP I noticed. So much changed. But as I manage to understand what is going on and create builds I like it start to come back for me that your build matter a lot for what kind of experience you will have and how effectively you will play

the1andonlyskwex · June 2022

You probably got moved into a higher MMR tier. The difficulty curve for BGs is extremely punishing, and it's very easy to go from doing really well in one match to feeling useless the next based on a small increase in MMR ranking.

Unfortunately, the only solutions I've found are:
1) Significantly upgrade your build/gear (in particular, it's very hard to be competitive without gold weapons).
2) Get better. Very high skill can make up for some gear deficiencies.
3) Switch to a different character (because MMR is tied to characters, not players/accounts).

Megaschwann · June 2022

Hey Yakidafi,

Thank you very much for your answer

I totally agree with you there.
However, it wasn't the case for me that I paused for a long time and then went back into the game and then just got punched. I've been playing BGs every day for about 10 months, got better and better and now I'm suddenly lousy xD
I just somehow lack the explanations, which is why I'm looking for advice here.

Sure, my set could be better (I play a woodelf stamblade with stygian/caluurion/balorgh, no mythics), but it worked before...
Is it due to some patch or update? Did everyone else just get better and not me? Or have I just gotten worse ^^ no idea?

The whole time I didn't even have an en execute and now I'm pounding like crazy 3 or more times on guys whose life bar is down to 1 millimeter and they don't die. Even with Balorgh 500 Ulti and really everything on damage that goes, there are quite a few players who don't care at all. Before it was at least possible to reduce their life noticeably if I couldn't kill them.

Of course I could still get mythics and I'll probably do that. But would that make such a big difference? And it really sucks to have to farm this stupid stuff for eons. I just want to make some BGs ^^ I don't want to have to slave away for hundreds of hours before I can have a few minutes of fun playing the game.

P.S.: google translation ;D

Megaschwann · June 2022

the1andonlyskwex wrote: »

You probably got moved into a higher MMR tier. The difficulty curve for BGs is extremely punishing, and it's very easy to go from doing really well in one match to feeling useless the next based on a small increase in MMR ranking.

Unfortunately, the only solutions I've found are:
1) Significantly upgrade your build/gear (in particular, it's very hard to be competitive without gold weapons).
2) Get better. Very high skill can make up for some gear deficiencies.
3) Switch to a different character (because MMR is tied to characters, not players/accounts).

OK...interesting point. How is this MMR tier actually calculated and how often? And do you think that this MMR tier increase has now permanently put me in a let's say "higher" league?
If so, can I also get back into a "lower" league?
Because I've been really miserable for weeks now and would be more happy about a relegation ^^
Or do I stay there and have to start all over again, just on a higher level?
But you don't mean the usual fluctuations in BGs? That's why I gave my average value of 12K/4D/16A. The best values were 20K/2D/16A and when things went badly 4K/6D/6A. As I said, I haven't had more than 4 kills per BG for weeks now and I'm constantly getting killed myself.

1) Okay, didn't know that gold can make so much difference

2) Yeah, definitely... I'm often too lazy for that ^^
3) Not a bad idea either

Thanky you very much!

chessalavakia_ESO · June 2022

I'm unsure if the MMR tier is permanent but, I have yet to have a character fall out of the higher MMR pool. I'm unsure also if the MMR is based on PvP performance or objective performance. As I play the objective and many people don't my objective performance is high even when I'm getting 0 kills in a match and 10+ deaths.

Generally speaking, I quit playing the character in Battlegrounds once I hit the higher pool for more than a week or two unless I'm testing something outside of needing fast xp to level a skill or endeavors because it just stops being fun.

Generally speaking , the people that are beating me in fights are more geared towards PvP than I am, better at PvP than I am due to years of experience and faster reflexes, and are taking a different approach to PvP than I am.

For me, PvP is a thing I do on the side and I do not use abilities I absolutely hate fighting against in Battlegrounds. As I think streak stun is an abomination I don't use it on my Sorc which needless to say puts a damper on my performance.

propertyOfUndefined · June 2022

Ah... I remember being in the same boat a couple of years ago. Everything you described suggests MMR. You are considered "good" by the algorithm now, which means you're pitted against players who are also considered "good". It'll get to the point where you feel like you're in teams with 3 inexperienced players to balance out going up against 4 average players in other teams -- i.e. you're expected to carry your team. Can be frustrating when you don't consider yourself as "good" as the algorithm does...

Megaschwann · June 2022

Thanks a lot for your answers!

I think that answers my question for now. I will try to take all your tips and advice to heart and implement them. Hope it will work

Kind regards and thank you