The Imperial City Anniversary "Event" seems a bit of a failure (NA PC)

Transairion · August 2016

The factions which already dominated Imperial City are continuing to do so, just getting double Tel'var for doing what they always do. Zergs are everywhere, but only if you're EP/DC... if you're AD nobody wants to group because topside is red and blue, sewers is full of gankers invading up to other faction's doorways and the center is full of the same people farming Molag Bal unopposed. AD is basically non-existent across every Imperial City, which is terrible since my main is AD so there isn't a whole lot to do apart from suicide dive.

Meanwhile, Backwater Blade's Imperial City is an EP-controlled paradise devoid of any life.... so devoid even as EP I can't get anyone to group either.

So far Imperial City is the worst I've ever seen it, can't do anything as AD. Where the heck is everyone? Why won't you group?

While the event has succeeded in drawing a lot of people to the Imperial City, there's also a hell of a lot of zergs across all factions and depending on time of day, certain factions are just getting farmed helplessly if they show up.

bottleofsyrup · August 2016

Is this another "every faction but mine zergs" thread? FYI, I was in there for a couple of hours earlier and AD dominated the districts

Transairion · August 2016

Is this another "every faction but mine zergs" thread? FYI, I was in there for a couple of hours earlier and AD dominated the districts

What server? Because I've been going between Haderus/Trueflame for hours now and all AD has done is capture a district or two then lost it soon afterwards with groups going back and forth farming each other for AP as they cap/lose flags. EP/DC actually fight in centre between zergs but AD isn't doing anything down south except die.

I'm basing this off fact of what I've experienced, not wild speculation. Nobody in AD will group (when I ask nor try to form) anything more than a 3-man which isn't doing much except gank.

DaFatCookie · August 2016

im playing on EP factions and playing on Azure and Trueflame and no one wants to sewer farm for the skin and everytime i go to the sewers its seems so dead like no one even plays DLC at all. i just want the skin i feel very sad about this event

.

code65536 · August 2016

When this was announced, people got excited about the prospect of getting stones, scamps, and skins.

And I'll admit, I got excited too.

But as soon as I thought about it, that excitement died down. There will be so much overcrowding and so much fighting against other players that you're probably better off getting stones, scamps, and skins during the normal time. Twice the drop rate doesn't mean much if there's so much going on that you'd be lucky to even get half the number of completions.

Acrolas · August 2016

Celebratory t-shirt.

rhapsodious · August 2016

There was a group of 15-20 AD running around topside on Haderus roflstomping anyone who got in their way when I was playing early this evening. There were also yellow base-campers and people who would proxy-bomb a group doing Molag Bal when I was running it... topside I could barely do anything at the end of my play session due to constantly being attacked. But, granted, I am by no means a talented PvPer and my bars were set up for PvE anyway.

I'm sure every faction will be doing it especially as guilds (PvP or otherwise) coordinate sewer runs at a specific time.

I made about 60K TV, which was nice, but I don't have the skin to show for it. Still missing two topside bosses, though, so I'll be coming back sure enough. Maybe even get me a polymorph.

Agalloch · August 2016

Every war have it's zergs

Whiphid · August 2016

Completely opposite on EU/PS4... where only AD seems to zerg.

DRXHarbinger · August 2016

Whiphid wrote: »

Completely opposite on EU/PS4... where only AD seems to zerg.

Same issue... higher drop rate (supposedly) but what are your chances in even getting to loot Bal? I tried 22 times and couldn't even get an opportunity to loot. Epic fail of an event.

Beardimus · August 2016

All the AD are on Xbox..

Taleof2Cities · August 2016

Transairion wrote: »

Meanwhile, Backwater Blade's Imperial City is an EP-controlled paradise devoid of any life.... so devoid even as EP I can't get anyone to group either.

Many good points.

And this one above explains why the BwB Cyrodiil map goes an unmitigated blue during the day and unmitigated yellow during the evening (NA PC).

Titansteele · August 2016

5 guidlies and myself went to fight for the Queen in the City on Haderus EU and where it was very busy we had an absolute ball.

Everyone swarming to the middle of the sewers on the first day and branding the entire event a failure is more than a little short sighted.

If there are loads of people in IC, earning stones and killing reds and blues on the way then its a success in my eyes!

arkansas_ESO · August 2016

bottleofsyrup wrote: »

Is this another "every faction but mine zergs" thread? FYI, I was in there for a couple of hours earlier and AD dominated the districts

Same. I was on NA PC Trueflame from 9 to 11 PM EST yesterday, a 30+ man (no, seriously) AD group dominated the center for those four hours, wiping every DC or EP group that tried to fight them. There's definitely not an issue of AD not having enough of a presence, you're just running at the wrong time or not asking the right people for group invites.

DRXHarbinger · August 2016

Wow the skin dropped. Looted the gold and bang killed by a zerg bomb..
No skin, the 200 reds are now back. *** this game.

Palidon · August 2016

Did you really think it was not going to be a free for all in the sewers with the IC event? The writing was on the wall.

Wow · August 2016

idk about AD, but isn't DC basically has the most population in PC NA like everyone and their moms went DC

Also it feels like AD only dominates during Oceanic/Australia prime time. Lots of their zergs during these times, and only on these times. but for the other 75% of the time they are non existent.

Transairion · August 2016

Everyone swarming to the middle of the sewers on the first day and branding the entire event a failure is more than a little short sighted.

If there are loads of people in IC, earning stones and killing reds and blues on the way then its a success in my eyes!

The event has succeeded in drawing people to Imperial City, which I've never seen "super populated" before (mind you I only got it relatively recently) so no problem with that. The issue I have, which some people may share, is that the event rather oddly actively encourages zerging as the "best option".

Molag Bal is a prime example: EP and DC zergs of 8-10 were duking it out in the middle, but when one left/died the other faction would arrive immediately afterward so no-one was really able to hold centre and it was just a revolving door of lost stones and deaths. The only way anyone eventually took control was to zerg en mass with sheer numbers (like 20+ players) and take the RNG "only 12 get loot" hit to fight Molag Bal at all. This went on for hours, trading factions as certain factions's zergs logged off. And while some players would attempt to Proxy Det/Vicious Death bomb, they would fail due to the sheer numbers present (since they weren't all stacked in one spot for easy kills either).

When kicked out of Molag Bal farm, some of the zergs just went up to the top and raced around the city. EP did, DC did it, AD eventually did it too after losing Molag Bal. And, problematically, it works really well... it's the safest way to play the Imperial City at present.

Wasn't the intention behind Imperial City for "small scale" PvP though? Masses of 16+ player zergs being the norm during the event seems kind of... counter-intuitive to that. Pre-event only rare, rare groups would form massive zergs of higher than 10 players and they tended to be looked down upon by everyone else present. By some miracle, I got what I wanted though in the timeframe AD managed to hold Molag Bal's attention today... but that said, it was done as a massive zerg out of necessity because the other zerg couldn't be pushed out otherwise. Feels bad man.

TLDR: IMO Zerging is 100% the best strategy for Imperial City during the event, which is kind of the polar opposite of what Imperial City was designed for. It's a little strange, but I am at least enjoying people wanting to group more often than otherwise.

But I feel like ZOS's intention for the event wasn't for Imperial City to become a zergfest either

Robbmrp · August 2016

All Campaigns should have had IC reset for this as well as those who's campaigns determine IC Access. Then everything would have had to be retaken at least and not just given to them as is.

Titansteele · August 2016

Last night on Haderus EU the hype had clearly passed as where it was busier than normal I spotted a zerg or 2 in a 2 hour session and had countless small fights (4*4*4 was the largest)

@Transairion I do not disagree with what your saying but I stick by my view that judging based upon the first night of a week long event is not enough to provide fair justice. I enjoyed the first night despite the zergs and enjoyed the secnd night even more.

Beardimus · August 2016

It's good to see a healthy pop in IC I think. Some may stay, most will go next week.

Sheezabeast · August 2016

My guild tried to do a center run and it was a mess, we did really well and killed him once, but the second time we tried killing him we got zerged by Fengrush and his legions of DC :c It was fun but it was so laggy

I'd like them to do this again sometime but maybe separate districts and sewers. Like a day for boosted stones for the bosses or just controlling the districts, doing this would help balance it I think. Doing up top and Sewers at once made it a bit too laggy in my opinion. No specific zerg to blame, but with all 3 factions zerging a zone the size of the districts and sewers at the same time on the same server all the EP zergs migrated over to Haderus...it was just FPS hell.