Need help in PVP

propain

I need help figuring out what armor sets and overall build to use in PVP. All my focus so far has just been PVE so i basically have no gear or any sort of setup for PVP. I only plan to use this for Battlegrounds, I will not be doing anything in cyrodiil. Right now i pretty much get 1 shot before i can even enter a fight and it's super annoying yet i see some people taking on 4 other players taking almost no damage, like how? I currently play a mag templar with a destruction staff but will swap to stam and a different weapon if that might help me as well. I just want to feel like i can survive while at the same time dish out at least decent damage to help the team and not blow up and die in a second.

Sluggy

Well, not getting destroyed instantly is a factor of both your build AND your experience level. Lag, crazy damage gankers, being focused by many enemies, and just plain old bad luck are always a factor. Your experience in spotting and avoiding bad situations before they manifest just comes from playing for a long time and having it happen to you a lot. And even then... sometimes it just happens.

As for gear: Clever Alchemist, Wretched Vitality, Rallying Cry, Mechanical Acuity, Order's Wrath, Back-Alley Gourmand. Pick any two you like. Lately I've been rocking Clever on my backbar and Rallying on my front and it feels decent (but I only play Cyrodiil and mostly solo). Keep note of how many people are in your group if you go with Rallying Cry. In a group of 4 it starts to drop off quit a bit. In a group of 8 it's probably not worth at all. If you have access to mythics pick one that you like. Since it sounds like you're newer to PvP I'd suggest Wild Hunt or Markyn since they don't require timing anything and are quite strong.

Defense also comes from just having good stats to begin with. 30k health is the minimum target most people will aim for. But more is simply better. I like sitting around 35k-38k. Some builds go higher to the 40k-45k range. If you have a class who's healing scales with health the benefit of higher health becomes more obvious.

Armor is a bit weird. Some aim for 30k or more. I've seen some suggest even going closer to 40k. You can get that with protective jewelry and some sets that boost armor. Personally, I find penetration easy to source so if you're not willing to go crazy high on the armor it probably isn't work investing in much. Move speed and experience can make up the gap. But being less experienced, it might be worth looking into sets like Aetherial Ascension (comes with some pretty big downsides though). During a burst situation armor might not matter as much but for regular plinking attacks it probably actually helps a lot.

Traits on armor are important. Impen and Well-Fitted are pretty much the go to. If you are highly mobile and like to sprint and dodge a lot like me then just go well-fitted. If you find you don't know when or what to dodge then Impen is better. Crit damage is very popular right now.

Blocking. It's the single strongest defense in the game. Know when to do it is an absolute life saver. A sword and shield on your backbar is absolutely a worthwhile idea. The increase to damage reduction and reduction of block cost is without parallel. You can also consider one or two infused block-cost reduction glyphs on your jewelry. That combine with a shield gets your block cost down to around 600ish.

Finally. Knowing when to push and when to back off. It's the single most important thing to learn. Sometimes you feel you are sooooo close to a kill only to find yourself gassed out, alone, and surrounded by enemies, and worse yet - the target is gaining health, not losing it. Stick with your team mates, learn to read their cues, and try not to get tunnel vision with kills.

EDIT: I forgot about monster sets. Some don't use any. Some use 1pc. Personally, I think Bloospawn is a great choice for many builds and again, quite beginner friendly as well as easy to aquire. Balorgh is very good too but it's geared more towards damage builds and usually requires a little more experience. Though, if you are leaning heavily into defense, this set can sometimes make up the gap in lack of damage stats all by itself.

WaywardArgonian

propain wrote: »

I need help figuring out what armor sets and overall build to use in PVP. All my focus so far has just been PVE so i basically have no gear or any sort of setup for PVP. I only plan to use this for Battlegrounds, I will not be doing anything in cyrodiil. Right now i pretty much get 1 shot before i can even enter a fight and it's super annoying yet i see some people taking on 4 other players taking almost no damage, like how? I currently play a mag templar with a destruction staff but will swap to stam and a different weapon if that might help me as well. I just want to feel like i can survive while at the same time dish out at least decent damage to help the team and not blow up and die in a second.

Malcolm has a pretty extensive list of PVP builds on his website, so that's a good starting point.

People who take no damage but manage to kill multiple enemy players can be explained by 2 things:
- With the way PVP works, you only need to be able to stack sufficient burst damage in order to kill someone. This means that you can invest significant resources into tankiness and sustain, and rely on certain skills and proc sets to carry that burst damage for you. For example, a Warden might be wearing a full tank set, but if he hits you with the combo of Dawnbreaker + the second proc of Deep Fissure while wearing the Balorgh monster set, you are still going to take a ton of damage if you are not built to deal with that pressure.
- The skill gap between experienced players and inexperienced ones can be insane. I stopped playing damage roles in Cyrodiil about 2 years ago, but I'm still pretty confident I could take on 6 Midyear Mayhem PVE'ers by myself and win. That's not something I say to sound cool, but just to indicate how much of an advantage you can gain by knowing how to manage your resources, how to set up a combo, and how to use your environment to your advantage. So when you see someone barely taking damage and then one-shotting the players attacking them, you can safely assume that that player is simply much better and more experienced than their opponents.

moo_2021

stam is not easier. You'd need to carefully manage stamina that's also crucial for sprint, break free and dodge.

templar could be a healer and only use jesus beam and javelin to help scoring kills.


Armor depends. I make mistakes all the time but nevertheless got a lot better after pushing it to 50k with Aetherial Ascension. A typical magsorc would hit you with 20k pen frag, so your 30k armor becomes 10k => 15% reduction while 50k => 45%, effectively cancelling all its penetration. Remember you can't help your team if you're dead.

Gladiator's Tenacity script from scribing gives 8% mitigation and S&B Shield Wall gives 7 seconds free auto-block for 135 ultimates. Some troll tanks seem to build max ultimate regen and rely on shield wall to stay alive.


As for damage, turn on combat metrics for pvp and check what people are doing. For example one build at melee range relies on stacking different types of DoTs and status effects, sometimes with sets like Unleashed Terror, then a heavy attack with the monster set Maarselok to burst players.

NoSoup

moo_2021 wrote: »

stam is not easier. You'd need to carefully manage stamina that's also crucial for sprint, break free and dodge.

templar could be a healer and only use jesus beam and javelin to help scoring kills.


Armor depends. I make mistakes all the time but nevertheless got a lot better after pushing it to 50k with Aetherial Ascension. A typical magsorc would hit you with 20k pen frag, so your 30k armor becomes 10k => 15% reduction while 50k => 45%, effectively cancelling all its penetration. Remember you can't help your team if you're dead.

Gladiator's Tenacity script from scribing gives 8% mitigation and S&B Shield Wall gives 7 seconds free auto-block for 135 ultimates. Some troll tanks seem to build max ultimate regen and rely on shield wall to stay alive.


As for damage, turn on combat metrics for pvp and check what people are doing. For example one build at melee range relies on stacking different types of DoTs and status effects, sometimes with sets like Unleashed Terror, then a heavy attack with the monster set Maarselok to burst players.

Omg I'm such a noob, for the life of me did not know you could turn CombatMetrics on in PVP. lol why is it off by default, ahhh maaaannnn