Cyrodiil Champions FAQ

ZOS_Kevin · March 21

This is your one stop shop on all things related to the Cyrodiil Champions Test. This FAQ should give you a general understanding of what this test is and our goals for it. We also had a community Q&A during the PTS timeframe answering questions about Cyrodiil Champions. We will include the community Q&A below for easy reading.

What is the Cyrodiil Champions Test?
The Cyrodiil Champions Test (Vengeance Campaign) is focused directly on reducing Ability complexity in an effort to cut down on server stress when mass battles occur. Anything you see that's enabled or disabled during this test is purely for the sake of performance and getting calculations as low as possible on the server. Support systems which are normally on, such as mail, achievements, leaderboards, etc., are disabled for this test. This is due to the overhead they present when having temporary alterations to your character while in Cyrodiil.

When you enter Vengeance during this test, you’ll engage with the smallest footprint of ability usage we could muster while retaining class flavor. We hope to see improved server performance gains with much higher populations than previously possible. We look forward to your feedback and participation in this unique test!

What is ZOS looking for from players during this test?
Glad you asked! For the live test, we’ll be looking to get feedback on things such as:

If players can successfully get into large-scale battles
If large-scale battles feel better latency-wise and how combat feels (responsive or not, fun or not, etc.)
What you think of the simplified abilities

If you run into any latency-related issues, we want details on what you were doing, what addons you were running at the time, what time the lag incident happened, etc. You can submit feedback here and bug reports here.

Who can participate in the Cyrodiil Champions Test?
The Cyrodiil Champions Test will be available for PC NA and PC EU Megaservers. The server performance information gathered from the PC NA and PC EU Megaservers will be enough for the dev team to make informed choices for all of the servers. However, there will be a Golden Pursuits campaign available to all players across all platforms to participate in during the timeframe for the Cyrodiil Champions Test.
For PC players participating in the Cyrodiil Champions Test, any character level 10 or higher can participate. Additionally, everyone will come into the Vengeance campaign with the same stats and gear. There is no need to worry about advanced gear or a level gap between players.

When will the Cyrodiil Champions Test take place?
Between March 24 through March 31, PC NA and PC EU players will be able to participate in the Cyrodiil Champions Test. The test will be live once maintenance is completed.

Where will the Cyrodiil Champions Test take place?
The Cyrodiil Champions Test will take place on the PC NA and PC EU live servers. The test is designed to get performance metrics from the live server and get calculations as low as possible. The test that occurred on PTS was to make sure that the test itself was functioning correctly.

How many Cyrodiil campaigns will be available during the test?
There will be one campaign available for the Cyrodiil Champions test on the PC servers: the Vengeance Campaign. Part of the test is to measure population caps and see how much the server can push. So even though there will be one campaign, it will have a higher population cap than current Cyrodiil campaigns. During the timeframe of this test, there will be no other Alliance War Campaigns available.

Will there be balance changes made during the test?
Unless there is something truly game breaking that either stops you from playing or allows for an exploit that impacts other areas of ESO, no balance changes will be factored in during the Cyrodiil Champions test. Remember that the focus of this test is not gameplay balance, but rather to test Cyrodiil live servers for performance and to get calculations as low as possible on the server. That way, we can gather the best information going forward when addressing Cyrodiil concerns and future improvements.

Where do we submit feedback about the Cyrodiil Champions Test?
We have two threads available for feedback and bug reports during the test:

Additional Notes for the Cyrodiil Champions Test
Additional Campaign Vengeance Notes for the Live Test:

A new Cyrodiil campaign called "Vengeance” is available starting March 24 through March 31.
This campaign does not allow your current abilities, items, and gear to transition into Cyrodiil. Instead, it replaces all your abilities, items, equipment, etc. to a template for each individual class. (EG. If you zone into Cyrodiil as a Templar, you will be a "Vengeance Templar" with pre-set abilities in your skill book. Only those abilities will be available to place on your action bar.)
Player Stats will be set and not be altered by any items worn. They can be altered by Abilities granted on each template.
Everyone is also granted reusable items such as Siege, potions, Soul Gems, etc.
Siege is also altered in this campaign where you can only deploy 1 of each type of weapon at a time.
If you try to deploy another Siege Weapon of the same type, your prior weapon will despawn.
You also cannot pack up any Siege Weapons to be saved later.
The following systems are disabled in the Vengeance Campaign Test. An error message will display in the upper corner noting "You cannot do that in this Campaign" upon interacting with quest NPCs, Skyshards, crafting nodes, stores, etc.:
- Quests
- Achievements
- Emperorship
- Leaderboards
- Mail
- Crown Store
- Armory
- Crafting
- Trading with others
- Interacting with Skyshards and Mundus Stones
Everyone’s mount speed is set to a pre-determined amount.
Any XP, AP, Gold, or Rewards for the Worthy system mails you would normally earn while in this campaign will only be awarded AFTER you leave Cyrodiil. You will still be notified when you earn XP, AP, and Gold while inside the campaign, but they won't be available until you leave. Any XP/AP earned in Cyrodiil is awarded AFTER you exit the campaign.
- XP will be applied to skill lines and abilities upon leaving except for Assault and Support skill lines.
Golden Pursuits will be active in this campaign.
AP and XP earned will be increased 100% while in this Campaign.
Slotted abilities will be saved upon exiting the campaign and will be separate from pre-existing character hotbars. This includes the primary, backup, and quickslot wheels.
The AvA skill lines will not be attainable in Cyrodiil during this time.
Enchantments, poisons, and traits will be disabled but won't display as red on the tooltip like the stat/set bonus will.
You will not be able to re-log into Cyrodiil directly from character select if you logged out in Cyrodiil.
Item sets are fully disabled in this campaign, including stat bonuses.
You can change your outfits IF they are saved prior to entering Cyrodiil. You cannot make new outfits or changes to your outfits while in Cyrodiil.
Addons may not work as intended. We know this is a possibility with the test. Please make sure if you run into any issues that you check your addons first.

ZOS_Kevin · March 21

Below are additional questions asked during the Cyrodiil Champions PTS period and the answers to those questions. We are including them here to provide additional clarity for those who may not have participated during the PTS timeframe.

Q. What are the next steps after the Cyrodiil Champions testing? For example, if maxing player population is the performance goal, and it's met, will the next step be adding additional skills to the character template and seeing where it breaks? How would that be done? E.g., adding a few weapon skills or adding a few sets. – kiheikat
A. The whole goal of the test is to prove out if the complexity of abilities is a core problem performance-wise. We've run a number of tests looking at various other things over the last few years on live, (CP/No-CP, Proc sets, group healing, population caps, target caps, hardware...etc.) and this is the next step in that progression.

The results of the test will determine our next steps - either way, though, what is on PTS today is not even close to a full feature. Anything we move forward with will need loads of work to flesh out.

Q. Which servers will the Cyrodiil Champions test campaign be available for the 1-week performance testing at the end of March? PC/NA only? Or all servers, PC/NA, PC/EU, XB/NA, XB/EU, PS/NA, PS/EU? – Ingenon
A. The Cyrodiil Champions test will take place on the live PC EU and PC NA servers, but we will be running a Golden Pursuits campaign on all servers so everyone can participate in Cyrodiil and get the rewards.

Q. How long do you plan to test Vengeance on live servers? – katemedina666
A. The Cyrodiil Champions test will run for one week (7 days) total on the PC EU and PC NA servers.

Q. Will we also see simplified versions of non-class skill lines in the Vengeance campaign? Like weapons, guild, and alliance war skill lines? Either during the first week of the test or in later stages? – KappaccinoNation
A. For this test, we only have the current abilities that are on PTS. As a reminder, this is a test and isn't a fully fleshed out feature. If things go well during the test, that will inform our plans going forward with Cyrodiil in the future. Any changes to Cyrodiil that follow this test will require A LOT of work to get to a full feature, though.

Q. If the Vengeance campaign proves successful and positively received, will you start adding the weapon skill lines and the alliance war skill lines to future iterations? Perhaps even make it a permanent campaign? – RokuTheRed
A. Similar to the answer above, we want to stress that this is only a test and isn’t close to a full feature. Whatever we move forward with, based on the results of this test, there will be a ton of work required to flesh it out into something more complete.

Q. If the Vengeance campaign is successful, what steps will be taken to ensure our characters still feel like ours and not copy/paste templates? How much customizability would still be available in PvP? Class skills are great, but what about weapon skills, guild skills, and the like? – IaminfactAToaster
A. This is a great question, and we’ve seen many like it, wanting to know what comes after the test. While we understand that everyone is eager to know what comes next, please remember that this is just a test. It is not a full feature. We turned off a ton of stuff (inventory, progression, cosmetics, skill lines outside of classes, armor sets, shifted to flat player stats instead of derived, turned off quests...etc.) to get this done quickly and in order to see the results as soon as possible.

The results of the test will help inform us on the next steps. Stay tuned!

Q. Will these Cyrodiil tests, whether they go well or poorly, have any implications for other PvP content such as Imperial City or Battlegrounds? – ParalyzerT9
A. In terms of the test, the team working on Cyrodiil Champions is the same team that would be working on other PVP content, so their focus is on the test for the time being. Anything beyond that, we need to see how the test goes.

Q. What are the goals behind this test? As in, what does a successful test look like to you as developers? I will participate in this because I love Cyrodiil, and it is the only reason I play and invest my time and money into the game. But what are you wanting from us as the test participants to report back from this test? – RepresentativeOk8793
A. To reiterate the goals noted in the first answer in this Q&A, the primary goal of Cyrodiil Champions test is to prove out if the complexity of abilities is a core problem performance-wise.

During the initial functionality test on the PTS, we were looking for things like:

If players experienced any character corruptions
If any skills were missing VFX/audio or not doing what they said on the tooltip
If there was any strange behavior with infinite potions or siege weaponry

For the live test, we’ll be looking to get feedback on things such as:

If players can successfully get into large-scale battles
If large-scale battles feel better latency-wise and how combat feels (responsive or not, fun or not, etc.)
What you think of the simplified abilities

If you run into any latency-related issues, we’ll want details on what you were doing, what addons you were running at the time, when the lag happened, etc.

Q. Do you have a way of filtering comments out from people who did not participate at all/very little in the test? And only receiving feedback from people who actually use the PVP portion of the game, not just PVE players who have never and will never play in Cyrodiil because it's not why they play the game? Can you distinguish between those people and the ones that these tests directly effect? – RepresentativeOk8793
A. Great question and it is something we’re considering. Cyrodiil is intended for everyone, across all playstyles and experience levels, so we do want to hear from everyone who participates in the Cyrodiil Champions test. We’re working with our BI and Research teams to create a survey for the test. We plan to send it out to everyone who participates in the Cyrodiil Champions test, based on in-game data, shortly after the test ends on PC EU and PC NA.

Q. Will my characters still have Racial Passives active in the Vengeance Campaign test? – DontTreadonMe4
A. No, racial passives will not be active during the Cyrodiil Champions test (Vengeance campaign.)

Q. Many of us don’t have the very best internet connection available, and sets like Vicious Death and Plaguebreak encourage players to all cast Ultimates, all at once (particularly in ball groups), causing high-server load and often resulting in dashboarding/crashing. What is the process for addressing this performance? – TenebraeUmrosus
A. Higher population and better game performance are the goals of the Cyrodiil Champions test. The specific scenario you’re describing here is one of the many reasons why we've disabled certain things during the test and are limiting all player characters to simplified test-specific templates. The fewer the variables, the better we can see if it’s possible to hit our goals, and if we can, build back on from there.

Q. In the Vengeance campaign specifically, there are no alliance and weapon skill lines. The Nightblade is the only class right now with access to Major Evasion. With no siege shields and the majority of people without access to Major Evasion, siege will be super oppressive. Do you have any ideas to balance siege damage as defenders will have a clear advantage being able to run multiple 600ap oils each doing 30k+ damage with little to no mitigation? Same question for cleansing also, as there won’t be access to it as it currently stands outside the Templar ritual. – Asleep_Masterpiece_6
A. This is a test, not a full feature. We are aware of balance concerns and are ok with what is on the PTS and what will be present during the upcoming 7-day test on the PC EU and PC NA live servers. The data we get from this test will help inform the future of Cyrodiil, and we’ll evaluate the work needed from there.

Q. Will character stats (magicka/stamina/health points) remain player-selectable or does everyone get the same? – decairn
A. For this test, every character is templated and there are no choices in terms of stat allocations.

Q. Will character mundus be enabled or disabled during the Cyrodiil Champions test? – decairn
A. Mundus Stone buffs will be disabled during the Cyrodiil Champions test, when you enter the Vengeance campaign.

Q. Will character CP remain player-selectable during the Cyrodiil Champions test, or does everyone get the same? – decairn
A. The Champion system, including Champion passive and active perks, will be disabled during the Cyrodiil Champions test, when you enter the Vengeance campaign.

Q. Will food and potions be enabled and unusable during the Cyrodiil Champions test, or disabled and not usable? – decairn
A. Since all character templates have the exact same stat values in the Vengeance campaign, food is not necessary. Your inventory does not go with you into Cyrodiil during the test, so you won't have access to food/drinks. Everyone will have access to a bottomless tri-stat potion – the usual potion cooldown applies.

Q. Is the ability to apply poison to weapons enabled or disabled during the test? – decairn
A. Poisons are disabled in the Vengeance campaign. We are not giving test participants any poisons (like food), and you cannot access your inventory during the Cyrodiil Champions test.

Q. Can the Cyrodiil Champion test PVP gear be modified by players at all (traits, enchants, transmute, quality upgrades)? In particular, can we modify weapon enchants, which drive status effect choice? – decairn
A. No, the Cyrodiil Champions test does not support changing of traits, enchants, or transmutes. Everyone gets access to the same weapons and items as part of the template when entering the Vengeance campaign.

Q. During the Cyrodiil Champion test, can we swap specific slots to our liking such as sword-and-board back bar instead of resto staff? – decairn
A. Yes, everyone will be given basic weapon types, and players can swap out as much as they like.

Q. Do the item sets we get access to for the Cyrodiil Champions test follow the heavy, medium, light basis and provide stat and passive modifiers, or is that all static? And will it cost any currency to get or change sets around? If so, what is that currency? – decairn
A. No, armor will not provide any stats during the Cyrodiil Champions test so there’s no need to change sets around either. Everyone’s armor stat will be the same regardless of their armor, item set, or armor type. Armor is also not provided as part of the test “kit” during the Cyrodiil Champions test. You will go into the test wearing what you have on – the stats just won’t apply. (You could take off all your armor and still have the same armor value and character stats we’ve set for the test.)

Q. Many non-class skills are key to player builds today and provide easier access to abilities such as major evasion, major expedition, siege shield, group major expedition, group heals (EV, RR, healing springs, BoR), etc. What is the plan to include or exclude access to these buffs, not all classes have same access to these within class abilities so there's an imbalance to address as well as potential any access at all? – decairn
A. As noted above - for this test, we focused on getting a small set of abilities to be as simple and performant as possible. We chose the class lines for this and understand it's not perfectly balanced. That is ok for this short test.

After the test and depending on the results, we’ll determine the next steps and share those with everyone. Regardless, there will be a lot more work involved before any more full-fledged changes to Cyrodiil.

Q. Is siege weaponry damage output being changed to compensate for lack of access to player survivability skills? – decairn
A. We made no special accommodations to siege weaponry damage, but expect them to hit harder because characters in the Vengeance campaign don't have the modifiers they have to incoming damage that exist elsewhere.

Q. Are there any new items to purchase at the PVP zone vendors? Or any changes to purchase/use/decay for anything from vendors such as repair kits, siege weaponry, potions, soul gems, and sets? – decairn
A. All players who participate in the Cyrodiil Champions test will have access to infinite siege, soul gems, and tri-pots while in the Vengeance campaign. The applicable cool-downs still apply. Cyrodiil stores/merchants will be disabled during the test.

Q. Will addons be allowed to be used within the campaign during the Cyrodiil Champions test? – decairn
A. Yes, addons will be allowed during the Cyrodiil Champions test. If you choose to use them, we ask that you just be aware that this is a test and addons may not function the way they normally do. They could also impair your test experience, and it will be important to note in any test feedback if you are using addons and list which ones.

Q. Will the ESO API for addons change be made to make new data elements available so as not to break existing addons that rely on data such as ability id and names? – decairn
A. There will be no API or base UI changes during the Cyrodiil Champions test.

Q. For non-Cyrodiil PVP such as duels, Battlegrounds, and Imperial City, is the intention to carry any changes that result from the Cyrodiil Champions test into any other PVP game types? – decairn
A. This test is isolated to only Cyrodiil, and only this specific campaign. Once the Vengeance campaign is turned off, everything goes back to normal.

All future plans for Cyrodiil depend on the results of the test.

Q. Is saving a build to the armory going to be supported during the Cyrodiil Champions test? Is your last build used saved on exit from Cyrodiil and reloaded upon the next entry? Or does a build need to be remade for each entry into Cyrodiil during the test? – decairn
A. No, armory builds will be disabled during the Cyrodiil Champions test. You will not be able to access the armory while in the Vengeance campaign.

Q. For guild traders in claimed keeps, has the PVP zone gear been disabled from this feature during the test? – decairn
A. Players will not be able to claim keeps in the Vengeance campaign during the Cyrodiil Champions test, so there will be no guild traders in keeps.

Q. For the Cyrodiil Champions test, are there any changes to Sneak? – Avran_Sylt
A. We are not making any changes to Sneak during the Cyrodiil Champions test. All the core combat actions (dodge, roll, jump, weapon swap, sneak, shield, bash, etc.) will work as they normally do.

Q. For the Cyrodiil Champions test, will Cloak be part of the Nightblades kit? – Avran_Sylt
A. Yes, Nightblades will have access to Cloak during the Cyrodiil Champions test, but it is a test-specific version of the skill that has a heal component plus a cooldown. (See below.)

Q. For the Cyrodiil Champions test, will Invisibility Potions and Detection Potions be added to the selection of usable infinite potions? If we have access to Detection Potions, will they retain their current 45m radius? – Avran_Sylt
A. No, Invisibility Potions and Detection Potions will not be available or usable in the Vengeance campaign. The only potion players will have access to during the Cyrodiil Champions test is an unlimited-use tri-potion.

Q. Are you going to use this test AND the results of past tests, or is this starting completely over? I see people suggesting tests of things that have already been looked at. – Soraka

A. While the Cyrodiil Champions test is new, it takes into account everything we have already tested. Data from past tests has helped inform the Cyrodiil Champions test – they are all connected. We will likely not be testing things we already did.

Q. What is your actual intent with templates? Is it just to test with limitations or is it testing a future rework of how PVP works in this game? (Testing only vs preview of things to come.) – Soraka
A. As a reminder, this is a test and only a test. What we have on the PTS is the minimum viable to prove out the test. There is a lot of work remaining after the test concludes and we see the results – the test results will inform how we move forward.

Q. Which skill lines will be available during the test period? Class skill lines are a given, but can we expect to see weapon, armor, and world skills? – Marto
A. For this test, we are only doing a subset of class skills. We did this so that we could get the test out quickly and to reduce the amount of potentially wasted work if the test isn't successful.

Q. Has the team considered that the hundreds of motif styles and their combinations, character skins, and polymorphs may possibly be responsible for the poor performance in PvP? I mean, I'm no coder but all those different combinations must have some measurable impact on the server.

I wonder if it might be worth testing a campaign where all polymorphs and skins were disabled, and characters can only use their alliance styles, or a few costume options that have to do with their alliance. – Finedaible
A. Yes, we have looked at the impact of the cosmetics - they tend to have a greater impact on the client and almost no impact on the server in relation to combat. (They don't generally change often and when they do, it's a pretty small message.)

The sole focus of this test is abilities and their impact on the server.

Q. Will you turn off the passive abilities of the Emperor in the upcoming tests? – Noreno
A. The Emperor passive will be disabled in the Cyrodiil Champions test. Players cannot enter the Vengeance campaign as an Emperor (Emperor passives will be disabled), cannot be crowned Emperor during the test, etc.

Q. Will the Ayleid Wells be available in the upcoming tests? – Noreno
A. Yes, the Ayleid Wells will be available during the Cyrodiil Champions test, and their functionality is unchanged.

Q. What will happen to the Cyrodiil dungeons during the Cyrodiil Champions test? Will they still not follow the general campaign rules? – Noreno
A. Delves will still be active, but they follow the same rules as overland Cyrodiil. When you enter them, you will remain as your Vengeance campaign Cyrodiil Champions test templated character. Imperial City and its dungeons are not a part of the Cyrodiil Champions test.

Q. Are you considering changing the “scaling to max resource” tooltip on sets and skills during the Cyrodiil Champions test? – argonian37
A. No, this does not apply or matter for the sake of the Cyrodiil Champions test since item sets and all skills except the template class skills are disabled in the Vengeance campaign.

Q. Are you planning to rework/modify siege mechs and DPS during the Cyrodiil Champions test, such as enabling them to destroy every building? – argonian37
A. We are not making any changes to siege weapon functionality or DPS for this test. We are also not changing what is or is not destroyable any time soon, for this test or otherwise. Destructible physics have an impact on game performance, so as much as we’d love to add more to Cyrodiil, it’s not something we’ll consider until game performance in Cyrodiil is where we want.

Q. Are you keeping the same quests in the alliance bases? – argonian37
A. No, quests will be disabled during the Cyrodiil Champions test in the Vengeance campaign.

Q. The simplified class skills in the new Vengeance campaign don't appear to have morphs. In developing these skill lines, how did the team account for stamina and magicka builds? And how did they decide what functionality to incorporate into each streamlined skill? (For example, Nightblades' cloak can be morphed to give either invisibility or a heal; how did you approach designing a single "cloak" skill?) – Ilsabet
A. There are no skill morphs in the Cyrodiil Champions test, that’s correct. We focused less on what kind of build you had and more on what the primary focus of the ability was once we stripped it down to the core idea. Stonefist for example is now just a ranged attack, and instead of a stun after three hits we gave it the ability to interrupt to keep with its disruptive nature. Likewise with Piercing Javelin, the ability no longer does damage but causes a huge knock back.

We made this decision due to the focus of the test being game performance, and in an effort to simplify or disable many aspects of Cyrodiil to see what is possible performance-wise. Once we understand that base-line of what is possible, and within acceptable performance metrics, we can build onto that foundation.

ZOS_Kevin · March 25

Hi all. First, thanks to everyone who has hopped into the Vengeance Campaign so far. The feedback has been great and we are getting some encouraging data. In an effort to get more information during the test, we have temporarily increased the population cap for the campaign. This will reduce queue time and allow more folks to hop in. With an increase to the population cap there may be a potential impact on performance. If you encounter any performance spikes, please make sure to report that as part of the testing experience for our engineers to investigate. You can provide that information in our our feedback thread. Thanks everyone!