Advice on how to gain Assault/Support skill in PvP

OldGamerESO · February 2017

I keep trying to get into this because of the bursts of fun I have, but it is offset by the issues I continue to have. Maybe you guys can offer some advice. My first and primary goal is to get all the PvP skills lines for 8 characters. They all need warhorn, some need det prox and others need guard, purge, vigor, etc. Most are level 3 assault/support with one level 4 (which took me 3 days). I hope to learn enough to make one of my characters full PvP, but for now I really need those skill lines.

This issues I am having is too slow AP gain. Here is what I have been doing:

Login and join campaign. I am DC on all characters. I have tried all campaigns.
I am then at entrance of the battlegrounds. It will be empty. Zone chat will be filled with completely unrecognizable gibberish. I assume this is all some sort of tactical talk with acronyms about names and locations, but it doesn't make sense to me.
I port to a local fort and buy 1000's in gold of wall/door kits and some siege weapons.
I check all the forts and outposts for anything that needs repair
I then check the map for where the fights are and use t-shrine to go to closest location. There is where I start asking in /zone for a group (where I will be ignored mostly)
When I land in the closest location to a fort under attack I then need to get from where I am to the fight. This is usually a very long ride. There is a very high chance I will get ganked before I get to the fight.
If it is a DC structure under attack then the DC are inside and I can't seem to get in there to defend. I die and am sent back over and over again.
If this DC doing the attacking then I will participate and try to stay alive until I die.
I have tried going to resource nodes and either the NPC's kill me right away or I get killed in 2 hits by basically anyone who sees me
If I try running quests I spend hours trying to get to the locations they are sending me, usually getting ganked along the way and having to start over.. (I actaully tried skyshard farming yesterday and some skeleton dude with 2 swords kept finding me. 2 hours and not one shard lol)
If I do get into a group then it is just luck whether they are doing anything that will earn me AP. A lot of time they form up to do something and we spend 30 min riding around getting killed or maybe getting a little AP somewhere. Either I am the most unlucky guy with the worst timing, but I always seem to be on the losing end. It would be fun to be with the winners for once!
I almost never get a defensive tick because it always seems that EP runs through and kills us all so fast and we lose the fort. Or I die and am so far away that by the time I get back the fight is over and I get nothing. (No one ever rezzes me).
Sometimes I feel like I spend all my time riding to where the action is and either 1) dying on the way, or 2) dying too soon in battle and having to rez 10 min away.

Someone posted on another thread about bleakers exploit that noobs don't know how to get AP. I agree, I don't. It is frustrating. I don't want to go and AFK AP gain, but at this point I feel I am not going to the the hang of this at all.

One thing I haven't tried is joining a PvP guild and giving up one of my PvE / Trading guilds. The maybe I can get advice and get into groups that can actually make some AP. I haven't done that because I feel it is not really honest. I am not there to PvP I am there to get the skills.

Pchela · February 2017

I am not sure what type of an answer you are looking for. In order to get the skills that you want, you've got to participate in the PVP things that are going on. Are you playing in a dead campaign? You needn't join a PVP guild if you detest PVP so much, see if anyone in zone is offering a PUG and join up with that.

OldGamerESO · February 2017

@Pchela I certainly don't detest PvP. I want to like it, but it is frustrating and it is a barrier to getting critical skills I need.

Turelus · February 2017

Right now outpost farming would be your fastest bet, this will be removed as an option in a couple of weeks however.

Next week is also double AP on all formats, so make sure you're playing then.

OldGamerESO · February 2017

Hmm I was just reading that it is something like 2m AP to get to level 7 assault. So that is probably like 100 hours for someone like me. I see this is a much bigger effort than I thought. I have found a bunch of good blog posts though on how to improve AP gain. I see some things I can try.

NBrookus · February 2017

Right now, if I were a PvE'er and just wanted to grind up AP, I'd get a handful of buddies and flip every resource on a quiet campaign during off hours. Taking a resource is 100% PvE and if you can do a vet dungeon, you can do this solo, but it'll be faster with a group and there's no diminishing returns for the 1500 AP per tick per person. I say 1500 AP... but it's 20% more if you get your AP buff ("Blessing of War") by killing any delve boss in Cyrodiil. Refresh that hourly.

Yes, sometimes you will die. You don't care, you just want your skills, right? Rez up and go somewhere else.

Show up at any keeps that are about to be taken; 6k AP minimum is not chump change.

Alternately, go to the busiest campaign and zerg surf; there is more AP to earn in busy campaigns. "Tag" players with bow/resto (depending on if you are magicka or stam) and countersiege. Flaming oils are your friend when defending. They do a ton of damage, hit a lot of players and also meaningfully contribute to keep defense. If the oil shelves are full (oh happy day), use meatbags and fire ballistas.

OldGamerESO wrote: »

I certainly don't detest PvP. I want to like it, but it is frustrating and it is a barrier to getting critical skills I need.

A funny thing happened on my way to alliance skills... I learned I liked PvP. But yes, it can be very frustrating at first. I would check the guild recruitment forum if you want to try out more organized PvP. Any friendly guild should let you try them out with a few groups before committing to joining.

Running with a big zerg is a poor way to make AP, but when you are a novice, sometimes it's more AP than you'd earn playing horse simulator and you are less likely to die so quickly. Getting ganked or one/two shot doesn't give you a chance to learn if you like PvP.

out51d3r · February 2017

I had similar feelings about Cyrodiil when I first went there. There is a fairly steep learning curve on where to go and how to be useful. You're going to die, alot. Which in most games I find acceptable. It's part of learning. In Equestrian Simulator 2014 though, it's EXTREMELY obnoxious. You spend WAY more time riding your horse than fighting at first as you l2p.

Eventually though you learn where to go when, and don't die as quickly. And most importantly: you max your horse speed. It's pathetic, but I consider getting my horse speed to at least 40 as the most important part of getting a character pvp ready.

heystreethawk · February 2017

Join a group with TS/Discord; they will have a better idea of how to stay alive, and the horseback rides will be less tedious. Telling zone that you are LFG (looking for a group) with TS will probably get you into a group quicker, but more importantly, the groups you join will be much more successful -- this isn't a game you can play well without voice comms. Even in the downtime between fights, you will learn more and pick up on more nuances than you would in an actual fight playing with comm-less pugs.

Furthermore, I would suggest asking your friends/PvE guilds if anyone would be willing to help you learn the ropes or join up with a group with comms. I think most people will respect that you're willing to put in the work to get these skills, as I do. Be open to the idea that you have a lot to learn, that you probably need some radically different gear/skills/CP, and that there is a world of understanding here that comes only from experience, and you will get what you are after.

(My first time PvPing, I died on impact when I arrived at the keep; when I respawned, my game crashed. Prior to the Summer of 2014, I had never even used TS. There are hurdles, and you hop them.)

IcyDeadPeople · February 2017

Have you installed an AP meter add-on like MyXPView? It will show you how much AP you are earning per hour.

If you are playing solo, you can earn a lot of AP fast from hiding and quickly killing enemy players when they come out of their keep or near a bridge, etc. If you have trouble killing other players, try asking a friend to help you practice to figure how the best combo attacks and how to use CC, how to escape, etc.

Otherwise, 2nd best option is healing, but you would need to respec to magicka.

Don't worry so much about defense ticks, because now offense ticks are very high. Try to help your faction capture new keeps instead of waiting around for defense.

Even all the people you see in Cyrodiil who seem to be really good at PVP - at one time they were all nubs as well. Improving just takes practice fighting people over and over, especially practicing with players who are better than you.

heystreethawk wrote: »

(My first time PvPing, I died on impact when I arrived at the keep; when I respawned, my game crashed. Prior to the Summer of 2014, I had never even used TS. There are hurdles, and you hop them.)

My first time in Cyrodiil, I didn't even understand that you could crouch and stealth from enemy players. I kept getting killed in Bruma by what I assumed were a pack of invisible vampires. =P

a_random_peasant · February 2017

Join the AP farming crew at the Bleakers outpost! If you're on PC EU, there is a guild that organises this every night and morning.

Now with its own trailer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ahy8p6AYRQ

PandaIsAPotato · February 2017

Wait until the double AP event and then go flip some resources.

Iyas · February 2017

a_random_peasant wrote: »

Join the AP farming crew at the Bleakers outpost! If you're on PC EU, there is a guild that organises this every night and morning.

Now with its own trailer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ahy8p6AYRQ

thats so sad

OldGamerESO · February 2017

a_random_peasant wrote: »

Join the AP farming crew at the Bleakers outpost! If you're on PC EU, there is a guild that organises this every night and morning.

This doesn't appear to be a thing on PC USA. It all looked normal to me