New to PvP- need constructive and helpful advice

ashlee17 · February 2015

Hi everyone

I am starting this thread to ask for advice and help on how to improve my pvp skills.

Until today I have been almost exclusively a pve player.

I have now resolved to learn how to effectively pvp with 2 goals in mind.

1# reach pvp rank 24 (for the skill points and the new stamina heal skill vigor)

2# become emperor (for the skill line passives)

A bit about me...
I play a Ebonheart pact vet 14 Argonian ww templar on the North American server.

Apart from reading a few guides and some very limited experience in the field, I know nothing about pvp.

I am especally looking for advice on the following subjects-

1# attribute/skillpoint/Mundas setup
2# armor and weapon advice
3# skill rotation attack/defense bar
4# how to earn AP effectively
5# any strong guilds that can help train me to reach my goals.
6# any other important information that will help me reach my goals.

Please keep advice positive and constructive. Thanks

Sacadon · February 2015

Real quick?'s

Are you stamina or magicka build currently?

And what type of role do you like playing (heal, tank, DPS, rouge etc...)?

Panda244 · February 2015

I myself haven't played a Templar, or reached Rank 24, because I have two characters that I PvP on a lot, so my time is split up. I'd recommend that you get in contact with one of my friends who imo is one of the four best Templars in game, but he doesn't check the forums much.

Alternatively you could ask @Xiphyla for advice, he's also one the greatest Templars I know. As far as Attributes go, I can't help you there, I can tell you that for PvP you're going to want some Stamina, even if you run a Magicka build, because you need to roll dodge and CC break a lot in PvP and just 1k Stamina won't cut it. As far as sets go, Xiphy can correct me here, but because Warlock rings are so damned rare I won't try to set you up with a build that uses that. Instead...

Sets and Ability Bars

5 Set Seducer + 3 Set Healer's Habit (The DSA set, use the Jewelry.) Enchant two of the Rings with Spell Damage and the Necklace with Reduce Magicka Cost or Reduce Stamina Cost, the Stamina cost reduction enchant applies to everything Stamina, blocking, rolling, CC break. Then for your weapons, Sword/Board Torug's Pact, for the extra spell damage when you have your defense out, Sword/Board bar will also be where most of your damage comes from. Offbar can be a Restoration Staff, doesn't really matter what set it is, precise for the trait, because you do want some critical chance as a healer. You could also use Magnus's Gift instead of Seducer, or Archmage, keep in mind if you do use Archmage you'd need to also grab a Healer's Habit piece of armor, because Archmage has a necklace and four armor pieces. As far as ability bars go... If you don't go Vampire then I'd say swap out Devouring Swarm for Soul Assault, so you have a strong single target damage Ultimate, you could also use Ice Comet (Meteor Morph) As come 1.6 it deals significant damage and has a relatively strong Dot attached. Also, I'd say use two pieces of Medium Armor because in 1.6 Light Armor is very squishy, plus Medium Armor will help you manage your Stamina better as it increases Stamina Recovery and reduces Stamina Cost.

Sword/Board Bar:
Toppling Charge - Puncturing Sweep - Blazing Spears - Dark Flare - Blazing Shield - Devouring Swarm

Restoration Bar:
Spell Symmetry - Breath of Life - Purifying Ritual - Radiant Destruction - Total Dark - Soul Assault/Solar Prison

Note - Radiant Destruction is the new execute in 1.6, can't use it yet.
At least that's what I would use, and yes I'd also go vampire as a Templar, just because while Devouring Swarm is active you can use Spell Symmetry to get back Magicka, and not worry about dying because Swarm is healing you at the same time. The PvP build I was going to use for my Templar, when he eventually gets to V14 is as follows, the only reason I'd use Warlock is because I already have two 5 sets of it across both my DK and my NB, so I can just throw it in the bank and use it on my Templar. Warlock is a great set, but too expensive to consider using in a build unless you already have it.

Sword/Board + Restoration Staff
5 Light Armor 1 Heavy 1 Medium (For Undaunted Bonus, plus Medium Armor helps with your Stamina.)
5 Seducer (3 Pieces of Light Armor, then Sword/Board) 2 Bloodspawn (Heavy/Medium Armor) 5 Warlock (2 Pieces of Light Armor and Jewelry)

For my PvP build, haven't decided whether or not to use Devouring Swarm or Clouding, leaning more towards Devouring because I can just switch bars and use Spell Symmetry without having to worry about healing, at least in small fights. Sword/Board bar is where all the damage will come from, and Dark Flare for the -40% to heals, then off bar for Total Dark which will generally just screw the target over and make them waste Stamina by breaking free, it's also highly effective when cast on Sorcerers. Radiant Destruction for obvious reasons, rest is heals meant to be alternated between me and another Templar via Spell Symmetry and Breath of Life is the only heal you need in PvP, Purifying Ritual is only there to remove debuffs like disease or DoTs, it's a nice little heal for your allies when they use the synergy and a relatively good HoT but not much else. If you want you could alternatively switch out Total Dark for something else, but I wouldn't have a clue as to what ability, again @Xiphyla can help you in that aspect.

Emperor

As far as getting Emperor goes, if you want to do it on Thornblade you're going to need a guild to help you, and since you're EP I haven't a clue as to what guilds they run, though you could talk to Crystalized in game and ask him, tell him Panda sent you, we're friends. But that's really the only EP guild that runs on Thornblade that I know of, and I can't see him turning down a healer, even if the healer is new. If you want to get Emperor on another server, such as Chillrend, Azura's Star, Haderus, you don't technically need a guild, as you do generate more AP solo killing things, but having a guild helps, because who else is going to push the six inner keeps?

Getting Emperor is extremely time consuming though, so take a week or two off from work before you attempt it, make sure to stock up on caffeine, TRY not to sleep, as not sleeping can put you far ahead, because you can repeatedly run scout quests all night and kill Aussies. Emperor isn't as hard as it seems, but it is hard, having a guild behind you to do it is nice, so like I said, try talking to Crystalized, and if I can remember his @Name I can put in a good word for you on the forums. Currently my PC is broke so I can't get in game to talk to him, odds are you can just ask in zone chat on Thornblade and you'll find him, he was almost always on last I played.

Attributes + AP Farming

Lastly, attribute allocation and AP earning. I can't tell you what to do with your attributes, but as I mentioned in the beginning of this post you're going to want some Stamina. My Dragonknight is purely a Magicka build but runs around with 1.9k Stamina, you probably won't be able to do that because you don't have a 10% Stamina Racial, but you can probably get about 1.5-1.7k Stamina and 2.5k Magicka if you allocate your attributes correctly. A really simple thing I do to maximize the effectiveness of my new builds, because I only PvP. One you've respecced, don't apply any attribute points, and make sure your new armor doesn't have any enchantments. Then jump inside Cyrodiil, because you get a small HP buff while inside Cyrodiil, you can maximize the effectiveness of your Enchantments and Attributes by min/maxing, in Cyrodiil you really only want 2.9k-3k HP, more is better, but not needed. Especially since you're a Templar, you could probably drop that down to 2.6-2.7k and not even feel it, you're going to be healing yourself and others a lot of time, and spamming Blazing Shield if things get rough, so your total HP really only matters when you get ganked, 3k mostly guarantees you'll survive, but other than that, no big deal. So I'd try to get your Max Magic to 2.5k and Max Stamina to 1.7k and then focus on your Health, and if you get your health to 2.9k and still have attributes or enchantments left open, use it on your Stamina.

Now as far as earning AP efficiently goes, you're going to want to farm AP like a madman if you're going for Emperor, and @Princess_Asgari can probably explain AP Farming better than me, but the "easiest" way to get Emperor is to jump into an enemy buff campaign, and take a resource or an outpost, outposts work best, and repeatedly kill the people coming to claim it, you want to do this with a group of friends, 6-10 works best, and just do it over and over, have your friends agree to run away from the resource/outpost before the defense tick comes and you can easily fly up the leaderboards, once again @Princess_Asgari can correct me, but at least this is what I and my friends used to do on Azura's Star before it turned yellow, and we'd nearly all be in the top ten constantly. If you don't get any resistance from the opponents then what you do is take Drakelowe or Dragonclaw, because you're Pact, and then move to take the Emperor Keeps that are attached to Drakelowe and Dragonclaw, for the Pact, that's Chalman or Alessia. AP farming on Thornblade gets you more AP than farming anywhere else, but because Thornblade is so populated it won't be easy getting Emperor there, unless you have a relatively large guild backing you up, and that's where Crystalized comes in. Anyways, hope I helped man, once again, @Xiphyla can help correct me and help you as far as Templar PvP builds go, and @Princess_Asgari can help you when it comes to AP Farming.

Panda Out.

ashlee17 · February 2015

Thank Sacadon and panda244

I play a magicka healer normally

I currently use 5peice warlock all vr12 including rings, 5 seducer and a masters restoration staff.

Panda I'll be making a sword and board ASAP now

I'll change 2 of
my seducer to heavy/medium armour (is chest and legs best?)

Telel · February 2015

These are a few simple tips Telel gives out ot their pups when bringing them slowly into the wide wonderful, hideously frustrating, world of ESO PVP.

1) Be prepared to die a lot. Seriously, just make your peace now and begin chugging chill pills because it is going to happen.

2) Get Team Speak or some other program for listening to a group leader. Don't need a microphone but being able to hear things like 'behind us', or 'someone set up a meatbag on the back flag' will make you more effective by far.

3) Build to keep your three resources (stam, magik, health) as high as possible, then for surviving hits, and then for damage. Being able to outlast others is more important than raw DPS unless you're trying ot be some newb ganking AP farmer or have a big group to hide in.

4) Learn to read zone chat, yells, etc. Illiteracy has no place on the battlefield.

5) Learn to place siege when sieging, and defending. If you're to poor, lazy, or selfish to spend the AP needed then you need to learn how to be a healer. Running at a wall with a bow in hand is basically just going to cost your side more than it gains.

6) Try not to sit around waiting for a group to hold your hand. While everyone should be grouping there will be times you need to show some self initiative instead of waiting inside a keep shouting LFG. Move to another keep and see if it's under attack, take a look at the map, etc.

8) If you're new try to pick up a restoration staff. Every side needs more healers, it's good AP, provides good defense in the form of a shield, AND the heavy attacks from it can not be reflected.

9) For stats most 'popular and successful' builds put the majority into health as you want to end up near the 3k mark when in cyrodiil if you want to survive more than a few hits. Again, building to survive is usually a better strategy than building to dump damage into one target.

10) Learn to dodge roll.

11) red circles = bad, green circles = good. Learn to stay out of one, and get in the other.

Sacadon · February 2015

Keep in mind, choose carefully who you listen to and take advice from, yes that includes me

.

1# attribute/skillpoint/Mundas setup - can't go wrong with Mage, Thief/Shadow for crit (-50/+50 rule) or Apprentice for spell pen

2# armor and weapon advice - 3-4 pieces of impenetrable trait armor till 1.6 hits, otherwise 5 light minimum

3# skill rotation attack/defense bar - Ignoring since someone who plays a healer / templar in PvP needs to weigh in. I play a NB and Sorc for backup negates

4# how to earn AP effectively - Ignoring since someone else will do this one better

5# any strong guilds that can help train me to reach my goals. - EP has some strong PvP guilds. I'll let them speak for themselves. If you ever decide to roll AD let me know. I happen to know of an excellent AD PvP guild.

6# any other important information that will help me reach my goals. - There are other good sources but found these quickly:

http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/142535/pro-tips-for-noobs/p1
http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/142221/top-10-goofball-raid-mistakes-in-cyrodiil/p1
http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/138729/the-10-anti-gank-guidelines-tips-to-reduce-the-frequency-of-being-ganked/p1

Asgari · February 2015

Your gear is totally up to how you want to play and if you search there are tons of threads on this. I will only comment on how to gain the fastest amount of AP for a new player or player who lacks the skills to 1v1 or 1xX effectively.

I will break it down for each class and if more questions come up i can answer those later....

Remember this is for new players who aren't good at 1v1 or 1vX but can work for seasoned players as well.

This will only work if you are solo or with 1-2 others in a group and are specifically looking to farm AP. You will need to "zerg surf" and go keep to keep where the defense ticks are going to happen. Not where the offensive ticks will happen.

Classes:

Sorcs:

1). Always have negate on one of your bars; preferably Absorption Field morph. Whenever it is up and you see your faction making a push into enemies drop your negate on them. You get AP for healing your allies and any kills as a result of the negate.

2). 1st bar will AoE DPS like: Wall of Elements, Impulse, Encase and streak.
2nd bar will be Heals: Run conjured ward to keep your self alive and run most heals from the restoration weapon line.

you are going to want to stay on the edge of the fight and cast your heals and dps into your allies. healing hurt players gives you AP and many of the first Emps for ESO got to first by just using healing springs and mutagen and combat prayer.

3). USE OIL POTS and Meat Bags every chance you get!!!! it helps you get more AP and help your faction win.

Templars:

1). Always have Nova or Rite of Passage and use them in big group fights.

2). 1st bar will be some DPS with Blazing Spear and Sun shield
2nd bar will be All heals from the Templar tree. Especially Breath of Life and Repentance and Cleansing Ritual. You are also going to need Spell Symmetry from the mages guild to keep your Breaths hitting for consistently high heals. your heals go through walls and floors so be clever and hide in spot the enemy wont likely find you and heal away with BoL and Spell Sym often.

3). USE OIL POTS and Meat Bags every chance you get!!!! it helps you get more AP and help your faction win.

Nightblades:

1). Run Veil of Blades and Soul Tether

2). You are going to want to build for a Sap Tank - look up on youtube for builds. Sap tank gets the best AP gain out of all NB builds. High AoE DPS and you can heal as well for added AP

3). USE OIL POTS and Meat Bags every chance you get!!!! it helps you get more AP and help your faction win.

Dragonknight

1). Run a build similar to mine and DPS as many players as you can and DO NOT DIE! if you are dead you aren't getting an AP. youtube link to my DK build Ariana Kishi is in my signature. In /played time of 27 days i have reached AvA 27 and already done the Tremendous Damage Dealer Achievement of 100,000,000 points of damage to enemies in Cyrodiil. The more DPS you do; The more dead bodies around = AP

2). Do step 1

3). USE OIL POTS and Meat Bags every chance you get!!!! it helps you get more AP and help your faction win.

All of this is subject to change and adjustment once 1.6 comes out because of how ulti is generated. However, #3 always remains the same.

USE OIL POTS and Meat Bags every chance you get!!!! it helps you get more AP and help your faction win.

Panda244 · February 2015

Princess_Asgari wrote: »

Your gear is totally up to how you want to play and if you search there are tons of threads on this. I will only comment on how to gain the fastest amount of AP for a new player or player who lacks the skills to 1v1 or 1xX effectively.

I will break it down for each class and if more questions come up i can answer those later....

Remember this is for new players who aren't good at 1v1 or 1vX but can work for seasoned players as well.

This will only work if you are solo or with 1-2 others in a group and are specifically looking to farm AP. You will need to "zerg surf" and go keep to keep where the defense ticks are going to happen. Not where the offensive ticks will happen.

Classes:

Sorcs:

1). Always have negate on one of your bars; preferably Absorption Field morph. Whenever it is up and you see your faction making a push into enemies drop your negate on them. You get AP for healing your allies and any kills as a result of the negate.

2). 1st bar will AoE DPS like: Wall of Elements, Impulse, Encase and streak.
2nd bar will be Heals: Run conjured ward to keep your self alive and run most heals from the restoration weapon line.

you are going to want to stay on the edge of the fight and cast your heals and dps into your allies. healing hurt players gives you AP and many of the first Emps for ESO got to first by just using healing springs and mutagen and combat prayer.

3). USE OIL POTS and Meat Bags every chance you get!!!! it helps you get more AP and help your faction win.

Templars:

1). Always have Nova or Rite of Passage and use them in big group fights.

2). 1st bar will be some DPS with Blazing Spear and Sun shield
2nd bar will be All heals from the Templar tree. Especially Breath of Life and Repentance and Cleansing Ritual. You are also going to need Spell Symmetry from the mages guild to keep your Breaths hitting for consistently high heals. your heals go through walls and floors so be clever and hide in spot the enemy wont likely find you and heal away with BoL and Spell Sym often.

3). USE OIL POTS and Meat Bags every chance you get!!!! it helps you get more AP and help your faction win.

Nightblades:

1). Run Veil of Blades and Soul Tether

2). You are going to want to build for a Sap Tank - look up on youtube for builds. Sap tank gets the best AP gain out of all NB builds. High AoE DPS and you can heal as well for added AP

3). USE OIL POTS and Meat Bags every chance you get!!!! it helps you get more AP and help your faction win.

Dragonknight

1). Run a build similar to mine and DPS as many players as you can and DO NOT DIE! if you are dead you aren't getting an AP. youtube link to my DK build Ariana Kishi is in my signature. In /played time of 27 days i have reached AvA 27 and already done the Tremendous Damage Dealer Achievement of 100,000,000 points of damage to enemies in Cyrodiil. The more DPS you do; The more dead bodies around = AP

2). Do step 1

3). USE OIL POTS and Meat Bags every chance you get!!!! it helps you get more AP and help your faction win.

All of this is subject to change and adjustment once 1.6 comes out because of how ulti is generated. However, #3 always remains the same.

USE OIL POTS and Meat Bags every chance you get!!!! it helps you get more AP and help your faction win.

Thank you Dear Leader

Asgari · February 2015

Panda244 wrote: »

Princess_Asgari wrote: »

Your gear is totally up to how you want to play and if you search there are tons of threads on this. I will only comment on how to gain the fastest amount of AP for a new player or player who lacks the skills to 1v1 or 1xX effectively.

I will break it down for each class and if more questions come up i can answer those later....

Remember this is for new players who aren't good at 1v1 or 1vX but can work for seasoned players as well.

This will only work if you are solo or with 1-2 others in a group and are specifically looking to farm AP. You will need to "zerg surf" and go keep to keep where the defense ticks are going to happen. Not where the offensive ticks will happen.

Classes:

Sorcs:

1). Always have negate on one of your bars; preferably Absorption Field morph. Whenever it is up and you see your faction making a push into enemies drop your negate on them. You get AP for healing your allies and any kills as a result of the negate.

2). 1st bar will AoE DPS like: Wall of Elements, Impulse, Encase and streak.
2nd bar will be Heals: Run conjured ward to keep your self alive and run most heals from the restoration weapon line.

you are going to want to stay on the edge of the fight and cast your heals and dps into your allies. healing hurt players gives you AP and many of the first Emps for ESO got to first by just using healing springs and mutagen and combat prayer.

3). USE OIL POTS and Meat Bags every chance you get!!!! it helps you get more AP and help your faction win.

Templars:

1). Always have Nova or Rite of Passage and use them in big group fights.

2). 1st bar will be some DPS with Blazing Spear and Sun shield
2nd bar will be All heals from the Templar tree. Especially Breath of Life and Repentance and Cleansing Ritual. You are also going to need Spell Symmetry from the mages guild to keep your Breaths hitting for consistently high heals. your heals go through walls and floors so be clever and hide in spot the enemy wont likely find you and heal away with BoL and Spell Sym often.

3). USE OIL POTS and Meat Bags every chance you get!!!! it helps you get more AP and help your faction win.

Nightblades:

1). Run Veil of Blades and Soul Tether

2). You are going to want to build for a Sap Tank - look up on youtube for builds. Sap tank gets the best AP gain out of all NB builds. High AoE DPS and you can heal as well for added AP

3). USE OIL POTS and Meat Bags every chance you get!!!! it helps you get more AP and help your faction win.

Dragonknight

1). Run a build similar to mine and DPS as many players as you can and DO NOT DIE! if you are dead you aren't getting an AP. youtube link to my DK build Ariana Kishi is in my signature. In /played time of 27 days i have reached AvA 27 and already done the Tremendous Damage Dealer Achievement of 100,000,000 points of damage to enemies in Cyrodiil. The more DPS you do; The more dead bodies around = AP

2). Do step 1

3). USE OIL POTS and Meat Bags every chance you get!!!! it helps you get more AP and help your faction win.

All of this is subject to change and adjustment once 1.6 comes out because of how ulti is generated. However, #3 always remains the same.

USE OIL POTS and Meat Bags every chance you get!!!! it helps you get more AP and help your faction win.

Thank you Dear Leader

Glad I could help

hammayolettuce · February 2015

Hey Ashlee, long time no talk! There's a lot of really great advice in this thread, so I'd just like to say that I would be happy to fight you 1v1 so you can practice any new rotations you come up with. The biggest difference between PvP and PvE is that roll dodging and light attack weaving will make or break you in PvP. Group play is another difficult thing for many people to grasp, so make sure you find a group to play with who you actually like and learn each other's playstyles. Then you'll be able to tweak your build to better suit your group.

Also, roll DC

ashlee17 · February 2015

Hello again

Thank you to everyone for your fantastic input. I'll be trying out many of these recommendations over the coming weeks.

One more issue i'm a little confused over is "defense ticks". I have read many threads about these (most of which seem to be old) but i'm still very confused.

How do they currently work and are they important?

Also- choosing a home campaign and the difference between home and guesting has me scratching my head a bit. Do you earn the same amount of AP homing or guesting in a campaign?

Panda244 · February 2015

ashlee17 wrote: »

Hello again

Thank you to everyone for your fantastic input. I'll be trying out many of these recommendations over the coming weeks.

One more issue i'm a little confused over is "defense ticks". I have read many threads about these (most of which seem to be old) but i'm still very confused.

How do they currently work and are they important?

Also- choosing a home campaign and the difference between home and guesting has me scratching my head a bit. Do you earn the same amount of AP homing or guesting in a campaign?

When someone dies on a Resource, Keep, or Outpost, their AP is thrown into a pot, when the battle is over, the AP in the pot is divided up among those that won the battle. Defense ticks tend to be much larger than attack ticks, and you ALWAYS want to stay behind after a battle at an Resource/Keep/Outpost to gather up the yummy AP's. They do take some time to actually tick so be patient. Eventually you'll learn where exactly the zone to get a defense tick ends, and starts, so you'll be able to gather them but still fight, for example.

You're fighting at an Outpost, and you have ten defenders, ten attackers blow through the front door and all of them are killed, 30-60 seconds after combat ends the tick will happen, and the ten defenders will get the AP's worth of the people they killed. When someone dies they're worth 800ish AP, how much AP you're worth depends on how long you've been alive, so if you've been alive for a very long time and then you die, odds are you dropped 800 AP, now you don't actually lose any when you die, but you're worth AP in that sense. So to make it easy.

Let's say ten attackers, that all are worth 800 AP, die on a keep, with only one defender, then that defender gets around a 8k Defense tick. If two defenders were there, they'd each get around 4000, 4 defenders? 2000 each. Making sense I hope?

As for campaigns, you gain the same AP in Guest or Home, the only difference is you show up on the leader-boards in your home campaign, but not in your guest campaign, hope I helped

ashlee17 · February 2015

Thanks again for the help

Had a great time on thornblade just now

One more teeny tiny topic on which I could use some more advice.

Running pvp groups

I tend to end up gathering a group together. Do you have any tips for leading pvp groups?
What addons should I have?
What targets should I prioritize?
Is there any pvp group edict I should be aware of?

Sry for all the questions and thank you so much for your replies!

Teargrants · February 2015

Since you are EP, I will share with you the secret to sucess. The Church of Dee Tick is the player chosen official religion of Pact, we are currently pushing for ZOS to include a lore book. Shout out your prayers to Dee Tick in /zone and you will have no shortage of ppl willing to help you and be your friend.

All hail Dee Tick, Father of Akatosh, Grandfather of Dragons, from whom Talos is Descended.