New to BGs? Start here.

Brakkish

tl;dr version in bold.




Let me start by saying if you landed here and expect to see a magic "how-to" on being instantly good, move along. That only occurs with time and effort.

Below, in this wall of text, I am offering some simple things to consider; these things will help make your time in BGs more enjoyable and hopefully result in more time on the playing field and less time in the respawn. (as most newer players do). Worth mentioning again - the intended audience is new players to BGs (not some of you old crusties )


The best advice I can give right out of the gate is to avoid any urge to clone yourself. Don't make a toon and try playing it just because you saw a particular build or class dominate a match. You'll end up frustrated because the part you cannot clone is the wisdom and experience of the player. Think "Learn to drive before you enter the race." Short of it: Play a class that you ENJOY. You are far more likely to enjoy BGs when playing a class you like (as opposed to the feeling of 'need').

Do not fall victim to glass cannon build guides (aka high DPS minimal if any defense). Playing one of these builds in a BG as a new player will land you in the respawn more than you are on the battlefield. That added frustration is manifested here in the forums with new players calling for nerfs - "Nerf [insert class]!! They are OP", or "BGs are in a horrible state meta meta meta, trash DKs, and Arcanists.. [insert continuing rhetoric]."

Understand if you are playing a squishy build on top of being new in BGs; you WILL be punished. You will find that most of the BG population plays for kill counts (regardless of objective); these types of players remember paths of least resistance and seek them out to pad their kill counts. You will become KOS (kill on site, ez target); don't be an easy target for them.

Therefore, I suggest building a tanky healer if you're just starting out. This serves several purposes, which I'll bullet point below:

• Being tanky and having heals, you do one crucial thing right from the start: afford yourself some survivability so you at least have time to learn the basics and size up the player pool. Some exceptionally skilled players are in the game; more face time with them will help you understand what you can achieve given time. Watch and learn.
  
• Having heals is a great way to increase survivability, not only by healing yourself but your team as well - and ideally, keeping the veterans alive so that they can expertly dish out some punishment to anyone attacking you.
  
• Since deathmatch is a BG mode that now only pops ~10% of the time, 90% of the other time is spent in objective-based modes, like Domination. Don't fall to the pressures of kill counts. It's a shallow and "newb" way of thinking. I can't tell you how many players from opposing teams I've verbally sparred with over the years in whispers, them pointing out that I had zero kills - even though crit heals pushed my total score to the top and over a few million in total heals never even got looked at. Newb tunnel vision = kill count.
  
• Case and point: Most new players ignore the objective; one, they don't know what it is, second, they are trained that pvp = "kill stuffz". What matters is winning the round; in return, you receive more XP and AP for doing so, getting the Battlemaster rewards, earning your daily and many other perks, and the appreciation from other team members who actually put effort into winning. Again, kill counts are only a measure of success on one mode, and that's Deathmatch - in which healing is also an unsung hero role but largely influences outcomes.
  
• It takes zero DPS to stand on a flag, capture a relic, or hold a chaos ball.

If you're still reading, I'll assume you're at least interested in this playstyle, and any DPS diehards have moved on, so I'll continue with The Basics.

Now that you have your general "Tanky Healer" approach (I won't go into actual builds; there's a bunch already templated to get you headed in the right direction; do some googling or sifting on these forums), let's dive into some fundamentals.

• Do: Stick with your team. Do NOT - YOLO like I see so many new BG players do... they want to run in and "go swing at stuff" right into the middle of both teams... dying as fast as they ran in. (I'm not sure how that's fun at all, but I see them more often than not continually take the approach through the entire match.)
  
• Do: Watch your six - sammich is bad, mkay. Do not let yourself get caught between the opposing teams; if you find yourself in that situation, it's far better to run through the team you are facing. This does two things: it makes the team you are facing (team A) stop and turn if they wish to pursue you, but it also turns their backs to the team you escaped from (team B ), where they will almost always help to punish the team (team A) you ran through. Doing anything other than running through (cutting left or right from the middle) one team in a sandwich scenario almost always results in BOTH teams on you.
  
• Stop measuring your worth and performance against YouTube videos. I can't stress this enough. 95% of all PVP ESO videos are clips of someone with tons of experience doing things in perfect situations to make them look godly. It's not magic folks; it's deleting the videos where you had your face melted and got repeatedly wrecked; while only uploading videos and boasting on the times you did ok, with a pocket healer out of frame, no doubt, against subpar players or groups.
  
• And lastly; exercise your block player function more often. If you feel the feedback you receive is valuable or can help you improve - perfect. If its intent is to make you feel bad about your performance or your preferred playstyle in a BG - block the player and move on. It's not important to understand why they are upset with you, only that you no longer value them or anything they will offer you in the future.

I could easily post several pages in addition to this beginner's guide of everything I've learned over the years, but there's some value in trial and error. This guide is merely an attempt to produce a more palatable experience for those of you struggling with returning to BGs because of the bad taste left behind from prior experiences.

My stake in this? I simply want to help increase the player pool within BG's, creating a more dynamic and healthier state of BG PVP. One of the best ways to help is creating this beginner how-to. I hope you found at least a few nuggets in it, and has some value to you.

buzzclops

You make great points but allow me to add some things! I’ve helped a lot of players/guildies/friends over the years.

First thing i want to say is: RECORD YOUR GAMEPLAY! And watch your positioning when you die. The amount of time I watch my friends stream on discord to help them out and they just run mindlessly and unbuffed into brawls while not even being a melee build.

Second: build for sustain over anything else when you start. Wretched vitality jewels of misrule as food and a recovery mundus. You get 3k plus sustain on your main ressources and it will allow you to make mistakes and rebuff early to get good habits early on. As your gameplay and positioning improves you’ll know yourself when its the time to reduce it for damage.

I personally would still suggest playing tanky brawlers over tank healers at first because you only get some time before the mmr puts you in harder games and the players you face early on are good for learning offensive combos. But, that’s debatable!