Are crits and crit resistance essential in PvP? Impenetrable VS Reinforced.

NikaTheCat · May 2016

So I’ve recently hit vet16 on my main, who is a magicka templar Khajiit. To celebrate my sweet 16 I stole some Jubilee cake from my friends and made a whole new shiny set of legendary armor.

This gave me confidence to go and try my luck in Cyrodiil and Imperial City, only to have my donkey handed to me like a little female dog. Several times. I realize it’s mostly the issue of my PvP inexperience (and partially of CP difference), but that is easily solved just by playing and learning (and farming CP or playing non-CP campaigns). That I will do in time. The problem NOW is that to actually learn something I need to survive for more than 2 seconds.

So I started analyzing how can I improve my character (the one in the game, not in real life – in real life I am doomed) and took a closer look at my gear. My armor is 5L 1M 1H, sword and board, resto staff (5 Kagernac’s + 4 Julianos) with Infused on big pieces and divines on small pieces. Oh, and Transmutation jewelry. However, this is my PvE set that I use to heal people in dungeons (and to resurrect them fast enough so that they won’t notice when I forgot to heal). But is it viable for PvP?

I hear that many people use Impenetrable for PvP to mitigate all those crits. However, my question is: why would anyone stack crits for PvP if everyone is using Impenetrable gear? And if, by chance, nobody is actually stacking crits for exactly that reason, why would people use Impenetrable? I understand that gankblades and other stamina campers always crit from stealth, but overall is it essential to have high crit resistance in PvP? And can you crit on shields?

Also, would it be wiser to instead increase your physical and spell resistance, not critical resistance? Say with Reinforced instead of Impenetrable. That way you can mitigate all incoming damage not only crits.
Are

The same goes for doing damage: is it better to increase your base damage (passively also increasing the crits) or to increase your crit chance and damage?

What do you think? And I would appreciate some explanations to back up your opinions, not just “I pwn noobs all the time with my Exploration gear! Exploration FTW!”.

Also this discussion is universal - about any class, not just magicka templars.
Thanks!

TL;DR: Criticals VS Base damage and Crit Resistance VS Resistance in PvP.
Thoughts?

pinchedrug00 · May 2016

I run 0 impenetrable on my magic nb 1vx build. I would rather have well fitted than inpen for onpen world play. For dueling impenetrable is good because in a duel you are usually trying to mitigate as much damage as you can while having high damage. The only classes that really use strong crits are night blades and templars. Of course sorcs can have their frags crit but frags are really predictable. In my opinion the only builds that should run inept are heavy armor builds.

Skitttles · May 2016

It's because you can hit 50% crit chance without trying or building for it. People in the popular Hundings setup and stam blades are in the 60-70% range. If you have a damage logger look at it and you'll be suprise at just how much you're being crit on. I recently switched from all divines to all impen because of this. My survivability has increased by a large margin.

As for reinforced vs impen, impen is better because of the frequency of crit happening and ends up mitigating more damage than reinforced would.

Stannum · May 2016

I use tanky build for PvP for my magika NB and I go nirnhoned trait (for spell resist) and siphonig makes possible to play almost permablock.

kylewwefan · May 2016

Much of the damage you take from other players is from Crit. Yes, Impen is what you want in PvP, but it's worthless in the main game, as monsters don't Crit.

You want to raise your spell damage to hit harder in PvP. Sword n Board in PvP......not so good. I'll stop advice here because I suck at PvP.

holosoul · May 2016

Yes, the PVP exclusive trait which PVP is balanced around you having is essential in PVP.

NikaTheCat · May 2016

Thanks for the replies!

I'm thinking about maybe making some vet14 gear just to test out different trait effectiveness by making my friends kick me in the face repeatedly and calculating the damage.
I understand the logic of impenetrable and criticals, but what matters is the numbers. Because in this game to stack some stat, you usually sacrifice something else (and it definitely should be this way). I just need to understand the cost efficiency of each stat.

kylewwefan wrote: »

Much of the damage you take from other players is from Crit. Yes, Impen is what you want in PvP, but it's worthless in the main game, as monsters don't Crit.

You want to raise your spell damage to hit harder in PvP. Sword n Board in PvP......not so good. I'll stop advice here because I suck at PvP.

I find sword and board more reliable in PvE to not die and block some of the boss damage. Mostly it just fits my play style. I will probably switch it for dual wield in PvP though.

holosoul wrote: »

Yes, the PVP exclusive trait which PVP is balanced around you having is essential in PVP.

If PvP is truly balanced around one trait, then it's not really balanced, is it?

Rohamad_Ali · May 2016

It doesn't hurt . I recommend it for non Nightblades . You may wanna crunch some numbers so you get enough magica recovery too . Mix it up .

mtwiggz · May 2016

For PvP you'll definitely want impen on a good portion of your gear. Some players can easily crit 6-8k, sometimes even in the 10-12k range. If you can reduce the amount of those massive hits your survivability will skyrocket.

Lexxypwns · May 2016

Impen > Reinforced.

The thing is, you can stack crit damage much higher than crit damage resistance, so its still viable in pvp to focus somewhat on crit damage(through elfborn, precise strikes, or shadow stone). Since stacking crit chance/damage is the most efficient way to boost damage, impen is invaluable, as its one of the few counter available.

For example, I run 3k crit resist on my Magika DK, by ensuring I don't take the large spike damage that unmitigated crits cause I drastically increase my ability to survive. Those 10k+ Wrecking blows and 9k surprise attacks people complain about in pvp literally never happen to me, the largest single damage number I've seen on my death recap was only about 5k.

Basically, you're not going to be able to outheal incoming damage if you don't mitigate some of the spike damage that big crits allow you opponents to achieve, since most builds will be adding to their crit chance/damage just through their gear/CP without compromising other parts of their build.

Another example, using my Magika DK. My Shooting star tooltip is around 20k(not sure exactly), with battle spirit debuff that's 10k damage, with a crit that's up to 15k(obviously a bit lower, since players have armor/spell resist.) The thing is, most of cyrodil is at 25k hp or lower, that means that if you're not running impen I can meteor you at about 70-75% health and it is effectively an execute. I just keep a little pressure up, drop meteor, use vamp drain to drop block just before the meteor hits. If you're not stacking some decent crit resist you're going to die, period.

psychotic13 · May 2016

I don't think it's going to be worth running impen as a Magicka build come the update, all Magicka builds will be using Dampen Magic as a damage shield cause it will absorb both types of damage, and you can't crit shields so what's the point if you're going to have it up all the time?

MrTarkanian48 · May 2016

Do not go reinforced in PVP, especially in light armor.

663 armor is equivalent to 1% mitigation. A gold Heavy armor chest provides 2772 resistance or 3215 w/ reinforced trait. So on the piece of gear with the most armor you only receive an additional 443 armor (.67% mitigation) by going reinforced. You can imagine that on a piece of gear with a lower armor rating the mitigation benefits are even less.

On the flip side there is so much penetration in PVP between sharpened trait(14% on live, 2.5k 1H(DB), 5.1k 2H(DB), Nirnhoned (18% live, no more penetration after DB patch), Light Armor Passives (4884 penetration), Destro Staff Passive (10%), DW/2H Mace Passives(20% penetration), and Major Fracture/Breach (5280 penetration). On the Live server and after DB, the crazy amounts of penetration make using reinforced trait a poor investment as enemies can ignore a large amount of your armor. Reinforced will need a massive buff to make it a worthwhile option in PVP..

Impen on the other hand is a hard counter to crit damage that is not affected by penetration.

Every player has 1.5x base crit damage multiplier. Some builds can drive this number much higher and the average NB probably has around 1.7x-1.8x. Even though these players may not stack their crit percentage through the roof, most players have at least 50% crit chance so assume every other hit you take is a crit. (My stam NB has around 67% in PVP)

So lets assume an average NB has 1.7x crit damage. If his Surprise Attack hits you for 5000, on a crit it hits for 8500. 3500 of that is crit damage.

One piece of gold Impen provides around 3.5% crit resistance (7pcs=24.5%). Also if you were to put 100 CP in Resistant you would gain another 25% crit resist. These figures are direct counters to the crit modifier. So with 7pc Impen and 100 CP in resistant: 1.7-.245-.25=1.205. So the same crit from surprise attack would only hit for 5000*1.205=6025 vs 8500 w/o crit resist. It makes it harder for builds with high burst damage to kill you and gives

The tricky part is balancing your CP. I am unsure what the preferred balance is because Hardy and Elemental Defender are extremely valuable options as well and competitive with Resistant. They also provide direct % mitigation as well without being affected by penetration.

On my stam NB I run 7 pc Impen with 60 Hardy, 60 Elemental Defender, and 47 Resistant. I do this to get the Unchained passive which is valuable for resource management on a stam character.

Unfortunately if you have low CP, it will be hard for you to compete with players at the cap as they will have higher resistance and damage. You may want to run in non CP campaigns for awhile until your CP gets around 350-400.

driosketch · May 2016

As a magical Templar, I also run a similar ratio, of light and traits, but for PvP I swap 2 small pieces for impenetrable. In addition I have some CP in the Crit Resist Star, have Radiant Mage Light on a bar, and healing ward to use when I need a shield. This provides my crit defense in Cyrodiil and helps my survival.

I've also been PvPing since lvl 10 two years ago. For someone new, I'd recommend swaping at least all 4 small pieces for impenetrable. 5 if you keep the shield, don't bother with reinforce for PvP. Armor penetration is almost as common as crit builds in PvP.

Also, since you're magikca, get mage light if you don't already. A damage shield is also a good idea. Tri stat food is a good idea. Gives you that little extra health to hang on and heal up from after a big hit, as well as stamina to roll, block, break free and run on. Lastly, learn to dance and move. Practice falling off ledges, rock jumping, and circling trees and crates.

Good luck.

Silver_Strider · May 2016

5 pc Transmutation and maybe 30+ points into Resistant from the Steed Tree is usually enough crit resistance for me (~2k crit resistance with Transmutation proc). Since Transmutation gives all the regen you'll probably ever really need, especially when coupled with Kagrenac's, its a great set for PvP and very easy to proc with either mutation, jabs, or just by laying down the Templar House.

I recommend running 5 Kags, 5 Transmutation and either torag for the 2 pc or any monster set of your choose. This way, you can forgo Impenetrable entirely and run max Divine/Infused Gear on your character.

Going reinforced is a waste as there is simply too much penetration and armor reduction skills in the game that the extra armor is almost totally negated anyways.

PainfulFAFA · May 2016

I play a magicka templar too and my set up looks something like this
2 EG (sometimes i switch to 2 bloodspawn)
5kags
5 transmutation jewelry
vMA staff (sometimes i switch to DW torugs)
5L, 2Hvy

With this setup and with my CPs fully buffed im at 3kish spell dmg, 23k/22k resistances, and 3400 crit resistance. If i have 2 bloodspawn im at 28k/28k resistances which pretty much makes me into a super tank with DPS but my low stam pool is the main issue.
I can 1vX noproblem and i feel super tanky for being in 5 light, but the only thing that kills me are WB spammers. I can handle 1 easily, but 15k stamina is not enough against 2 potato WBers. I've never been hit by a WB more than 5k tho and i use EG and repentance to kee my stam up.

Ishammael · May 2016

PainfulFAFA wrote: »

I play a magicka templar too and my set up looks something like this
2 EG (sometimes i switch to 2 bloodspawn)
5kags
5 transmutation jewelry
vMA staff (sometimes i switch to DW torugs)
5L, 2Hvy

With this setup and with my CPs fully buffed im at 3kish spell dmg, 23k/22k resistances, and 3400 crit resistance. If i have 2 bloodspawn im at 28k/28k resistances which pretty much makes me into a super tank with DPS but my low stam pool is the main issue.
I can 1vX noproblem and i feel super tanky for being in 5 light, but the only thing that kills me are WB spammers. I can handle 1 easily, but 15k stamina is not enough against 2 potato WBers. I've never been hit by a WB more than 5k tho and i use EG and repentance to kee my stam up.

This is a really solid starting point for a Templar. Adjust as your playstyle requires (e.g. swapping BS for Valkyn or Malubeth or Engine).

Bottom Line is this: Impen is absolutely, 100% essential for PvP unless you can ensure 100% uptime on shields. Only Sorcs can really achieve that right now -- next patch, forget about it. Get as much impen as possible.

Search around the forums, Crown made an Impen spreadsheet which you should inspect closely. After which you will understand exactly why impen is so important.

Septimus_Magna · May 2016

If you're DC or EP and play on EU dont run Impenetrable in pvp, its completely useless

brtomkin · May 2016

Silver_Strider wrote: »

Going reinforced is a waste as there is simply too much penetration and armor reduction skills in the game that the extra armor is almost totally negated anyways.

How does penetration and armor reduction interact with skills like lightning form and immovable (or even set bonuses and jewelry enchants) which buff resistances?

NikaTheCat · May 2016

MrTarkanian48 wrote: »

Impen on the other hand is a hard counter to crit damage that is not affected by penetration.

Hmm, a good point, haven't thought about it this way. But still the initial base damage will be affected by my mitigation, and my mitigation in turn will be affected by the enemy's penetration.

I don't really know how the math works in this game, somebody correct me if I'm wrong.
But for example, somebody hits me with a spell doing 10000 damage. And I have 30% damage mitigation which lowers my damage taken to 7000. And let's say that he also can penetrate 10% of my armor, which lowers my damage mitigation to 27%, so in the end I take 7300 damage. So the crit without the penetration would be 7000*1.5=10500, and with penetration 7300*1.5=10950. So now the impen will decrease 10500-7000= 3500 crit damage by some % or the 10950-7300=3650 by the same %. Basically, it seems that even if impen is not directly affected by penetration, the penetration still does affect the base damage and in turn the crit bonus, that is then mitigated by the impen.
I might be totally wrong though.

I still think that you and the others are correct, that impen will provide better results than reinforced, if reinforced really provides only such a small increase in mitigation.

MrTarkanian48 wrote: »

663 armor is equivalent to 1% mitigation.

...

One piece of gold Impen provides around 3.5% crit resistance (7pcs=24.5%).

How do you know all these numbers? Can you point me to some link or something? It would be really helpful to know this stuff.

MrTarkanian48 wrote: »

Do not go reinforced in PVP, especially in light armor.

The tricky part is balancing your CP. I am unsure what the preferred balance is because Hardy and Elemental Defender are extremely valuable options as well and competitive with Resistant. They also provide direct % mitigation as well without being affected by penetration.

On my stam NB I run 7 pc Impen with 60 Hardy, 60 Elemental Defender, and 47 Resistant. I do this to get the Unchained passive which is valuable for resource management on a stam character.

Unfortunately if you have low CP, it will be hard for you to compete with players at the cap as they will have higher resistance and damage. You may want to run in non CP campaigns for awhile until your CP gets around 350-400.

I have about 360 CP right now, although I didn't put points in Resistant until now, because obviously it is useless for PvE. It seems that to do my best in PvP and PvE I will have to actually redistribute my points each time that I go in and out of Cyrodiil.

NikaTheCat · May 2016

Septimus_Magna wrote: »

If you're DC or EP and play on EU dont run Impenetrable in pvp, its completely useless

This is the best advice I've seen so far!

NikaTheCat · May 2016

Silver_Strider wrote: »

5 pc Transmutation and maybe 30+ points into Resistant from the Steed Tree is usually enough crit resistance for me (~2k crit resistance with Transmutation proc). Since Transmutation gives all the regen you'll probably ever really need, especially when coupled with Kagrenac's, its a great set for PvP and very easy to proc with either mutation, jabs, or just by laying down the Templar House.

I recommend running 5 Kags, 5 Transmutation and either torag for the 2 pc or any monster set of your choose. This way, you can forgo Impenetrable entirely and run max Divine/Infused Gear on your character.

Going reinforced is a waste as there is simply too much penetration and armor reduction skills in the game that the extra armor is almost totally negated anyways.

Didn't really consider the Transmutation 5 piece before. Forgot that "allies" in ESO also includes yourself. And if you can proc it with Puncturing Sweeps and Templar House, then that's actually really good. Does this set have the weapons? Because it means sacrificing Kagrenac's 5 set bonus on the resto bar.

NikaTheCat · May 2016

Ishammael wrote: »

PainfulFAFA wrote: »

I play a magicka templar too and my set up looks something like this
2 EG (sometimes i switch to 2 bloodspawn)
5kags
5 transmutation jewelry
vMA staff (sometimes i switch to DW torugs)
5L, 2Hvy

With this setup and with my CPs fully buffed im at 3kish spell dmg, 23k/22k resistances, and 3400 crit resistance. If i have 2 bloodspawn im at 28k/28k resistances which pretty much makes me into a super tank with DPS but my low stam pool is the main issue.
I can 1vX noproblem and i feel super tanky for being in 5 light, but the only thing that kills me are WB spammers. I can handle 1 easily, but 15k stamina is not enough against 2 potato WBers. I've never been hit by a WB more than 5k tho and i use EG and repentance to kee my stam up.

This is a really solid starting point for a Templar. Adjust as your playstyle requires (e.g. swapping BS for Valkyn or Malubeth or Engine).

Bottom Line is this: Impen is absolutely, 100% essential for PvP unless you can ensure 100% uptime on shields. Only Sorcs can really achieve that right now -- next patch, forget about it. Get as much impen as possible.

Search around the forums, Crown made an Impen spreadsheet which you should inspect closely. After which you will understand exactly why impen is so important.

Thanks about the spreadsheet tip. Found it

Silver_Strider · May 2016

NikaTheCat wrote: »

Silver_Strider wrote: »

5 pc Transmutation and maybe 30+ points into Resistant from the Steed Tree is usually enough crit resistance for me (~2k crit resistance with Transmutation proc). Since Transmutation gives all the regen you'll probably ever really need, especially when coupled with Kagrenac's, its a great set for PvP and very easy to proc with either mutation, jabs, or just by laying down the Templar House.

I recommend running 5 Kags, 5 Transmutation and either torag for the 2 pc or any monster set of your choose. This way, you can forgo Impenetrable entirely and run max Divine/Infused Gear on your character.

Going reinforced is a waste as there is simply too much penetration and armor reduction skills in the game that the extra armor is almost totally negated anyways.

Didn't really consider the Transmutation 5 piece before. Forgot that "allies" in ESO also includes yourself. And if you can proc it with Puncturing Sweeps and Templar House, then that's actually really good. Does this set have the weapons? Because it means sacrificing Kagrenac's 5 set bonus on the resto bar.

Yep, Transmutation comes in weapons. I have dual swords and a Resto staff for Transmutation.

brtomkin wrote: »

Silver_Strider wrote: »

Going reinforced is a waste as there is simply too much penetration and armor reduction skills in the game that the extra armor is almost totally negated anyways.

How does penetration and armor reduction interact with skills like lightning form and immovable (or even set bonuses and jewelry enchants) which buff resistances?

For skills like Immovable, etc. if you're fighting someone that can place major fracture/breech on you, then that pretty much cancels out the buff of your skill, so your resistances will be their default value.

Can't tell you about set bonuses or jewelry enchantments though as set bonuses vary in the degree they protect you so some might be negated, some might still offer protection and some might not help at all.

DividendGamer · May 2016

I've been having a blast in group play running transmutation/VD on my templar.

FatKidHatchets · May 2016

Heavy armor, head chest, legs, shield reinforced.

Shoulders, boots, sash, gauntlets impenetrable.

Keep in mind 1vX only works against crap players. Any 2 good players will bend you over a barrel.

NikaTheCat · May 2016

Silver_Strider wrote: »

NikaTheCat wrote: »

Silver_Strider wrote: »

5 pc Transmutation and maybe 30+ points into Resistant from the Steed Tree is usually enough crit resistance for me (~2k crit resistance with Transmutation proc). Since Transmutation gives all the regen you'll probably ever really need, especially when coupled with Kagrenac's, its a great set for PvP and very easy to proc with either mutation, jabs, or just by laying down the Templar House.

I recommend running 5 Kags, 5 Transmutation and either torag for the 2 pc or any monster set of your choose. This way, you can forgo Impenetrable entirely and run max Divine/Infused Gear on your character.

Going reinforced is a waste as there is simply too much penetration and armor reduction skills in the game that the extra armor is almost totally negated anyways.

Didn't really consider the Transmutation 5 piece before. Forgot that "allies" in ESO also includes yourself. And if you can proc it with Puncturing Sweeps and Templar House, then that's actually really good. Does this set have the weapons? Because it means sacrificing Kagrenac's 5 set bonus on the resto bar.

Yep, Transmutation comes in weapons. I have dual swords and a Resto staff for Transmutation.

Awesome! Do you know if you can proc it on any HoT tick or just the initial one? I usually have my Channeled Focus on the Resto bar, which won't have the 5 piece bonus, but maybe I can switch bars and get the proc on the secondary heal ticks.

Also what do you use for PvP - Channeled Focus or Restoring Focus (if any)? Yesterday finally got the Engine Guardian set, and with both Transmutation and Kagrenac's my regen might be pretty good, so maybe the 8% healing received and 8% damage reduction of Restoring Focus might be more beneficial now.

RedFireDisco · May 2016

FatKidHatchets wrote: »

Heavy armor, head chest, legs, shield reinforced.

Shoulders, boots, sash, gauntlets impenetrable.

Keep in mind 1vX only works against crap players. Any 2 good players will bend you over a barrel.

Somethings can't be unseen

WillhelmBlack · May 2016

I can PvP in Divines and Infused. I have a few sets, some all Impen. I prefer a mix of divines with a couple Impen stacked with Impen CP. The thing that hurts the most in PvP imo is Penetration, not crits, Reinforced is not the worst trait.

BlackMadara · May 2016

I remember someone here once said that impen is more important the less resistances you have. I think the he or she said that until you have at least 15k resistances, you should run all impen. Not sure if he or she considered penetration though.

MrTarkanian48 · May 2016

NikaTheCat wrote: »

MrTarkanian48 wrote: »

Impen on the other hand is a hard counter to crit damage that is not affected by penetration.

Hmm, a good point, haven't thought about it this way. But still the initial base damage will be affected by my mitigation, and my mitigation in turn will be affected by the enemy's penetration.

I don't really know how the math works in this game, somebody correct me if I'm wrong.
But for example, somebody hits me with a spell doing 10000 damage. And I have 30% damage mitigation which lowers my damage taken to 7000. And let's say that he also can penetrate 10% of my armor, which lowers my damage mitigation to 27%, so in the end I take 7300 damage. So the crit without the penetration would be 7000*1.5=10500, and with penetration 7300*1.5=10950. So now the impen will decrease 10500-7000= 3500 crit damage by some % or the 10950-7300=3650 by the same %. Basically, it seems that even if impen is not directly affected by penetration, the penetration still does affect the base damage and in turn the crit bonus, that is then mitigated by the impen.
I might be totally wrong though.

I still think that you and the others are correct, that impen will provide better results than reinforced, if reinforced really provides only such a small increase in mitigation.

Yes, mitigation lowers base damage which results in lower crit damage. However, IMO due to the crazy amount of penetration in the game (I outlined all the different sources players can get penetration in my first post), focusing on increasing your armor value is most likely not the best investment. It takes a lot of sacrifices in damage/resource management to buff up your armor rating, and a huge amount of it is ignored by enemy players rather easily. After DB for example, a NB with a sharpened mace will give you Major Fracture with Surprise Attack ignoring 5280 armor, the mace itself will ignore 5100 armor, and the mace passive ignores 20%. I am unsure at which point the 20% is applied, but you can see that they effortlessly ignore almost 10,500 armor without the 20%. Light Armor enemies get 4884 penetration from LA passives, 5280 from Major Breach, 5,100 from Sharpened weapons, 10% penetration from Destro Staff Passives etc. Basically Penetration is very unbalanced with armor values in PVP, and investing heavily in reinforced is not very efficient.

For my stam build going 60 points in Hardy and 60 in Ele Defender give me 17.5% resistance to all sources of damage (magic, elemental, physical, poison). This is a hard counter that is not affected by penetration. Then by putting the rest in resistant and investing in Impen gear, you can really close the gap between the damage taken from crits and non-crits. It can help you manage incoming burst damage, and give you time to react (dodge roll, heal, pop shields etc.)

MrTarkanian48 wrote: »

663 armor is equivalent to 1% mitigation.

...

One piece of gold Impen provides around 3.5% crit resistance (7pcs=24.5%).

How do you know all these numbers? Can you point me to some link or something? It would be really helpful to know this stuff.

@Asayre has a lot of posts here and on Tamriel Foundry. He has a post on TF which he updates regularly and has a ton of useful equations. It can be found here.

MrTarkanian48 wrote: »

Do not go reinforced in PVP, especially in light armor.

The tricky part is balancing your CP. I am unsure what the preferred balance is because Hardy and Elemental Defender are extremely valuable options as well and competitive with Resistant. They also provide direct % mitigation as well without being affected by penetration.

On my stam NB I run 7 pc Impen with 60 Hardy, 60 Elemental Defender, and 47 Resistant. I do this to get the Unchained passive which is valuable for resource management on a stam character.

Unfortunately if you have low CP, it will be hard for you to compete with players at the cap as they will have higher resistance and damage. You may want to run in non CP campaigns for awhile until your CP gets around 350-400.

I have about 360 CP right now, although I didn't put points in Resistant until now, because obviously it is useless for PvE. It seems that to do my best in PvP and PvE I will have to actually redistribute my points each time that I go in and out of Cyrodiil.

Yes, unfortunately the way the game is set up, it is hard to move between PVP and PVE without making adjustments to gear, CP etc and still be competitive at a high level. You can do it, and I had been doing it for some time, but when you run into more hardcore PVPers, you usually just end up being an easy target.

I have leveled several different characters now, and basically have designated players specced for PVP or PVE, but don't really do both on any. Currently leveling alts can be a lengthy process, but with the upcoming DB patch it will be much less of a grind and I'd recommend it if you have the time. It also allows you to try different play-styles and keeps the game from getting boring.

Wreuntzylla · May 2016

If you are serious about PvP, run full impenetrable, the only caveat being that you should use reinforced on your shield due to the CP passive that doubles your shield's armor.

Also, sword and shield is great in PvP. Defensive stance!