This has been discussed in the Alliance War forum a few times and many solo/small group players confirmed they prefer not to engage other solo/small group players.

A big reason is the design of the scoring system. It's simply more profitable for organized groups to run randoms through a meat grinder than engage groups that compare to them.

Another factor is that there will always be randoms assisting one side in any objective encounter, and some groups don't want to beat another group if they outnumber them.

Players in ESO tend to be obsessed with numbers. Many seem to think that merely being outnumbered is the ultimate disadvantage, ignoring the fact that they have every other advantage against disorganized randoms. Being organized with voice comms alone is a massive advantage and such players usually have optimized builds as well.

Personally, I find combat boring outside of the context of objectives. Every PVP game I enjoy is team/objective based. Even though many players don't care about the map, it tends to dictate my actions. Numbers are irrelevant. If I am outnumbered but feel I have an opportunity to make a positive impact for my team, I'll always try to, even if the odds are very bad. If other players in my faction are being farmed, I'll gladly help them, even if we outnumber our opponents -- in this scenario, the odds are also often very bad.

At the end of the day, I'd rather fight good, organized players with strong builds than inexperienced, disorganized randoms, regardless of numbers.

With all of that said, I would say there seems to be more rivalries than ever now -- at least on PC/NA/Vivec -- and a growing GvG scene has emerged.

Well, a lot of times the “pro” 1vXers are well known. I know that if I go into PvP I will basically fight anyone I see unless they’re a friend.

If an enemy is standing still (not attacking) then it’s kind of a known thing in ESO that they’re not looking to fight. Standing still and spamming block is sort of a sign of peace. I won’t engage when players do this unless it’s clearly an act to wait for backup.

Other times when I fight against really good players, we either keep going for 10min straight only to go our separate ways, or one of us gets ganked... these are fun fights but I want to go take resources and fight off groups instead in Cyrodiil. So pro vs pro players tends not to really happen very much except in actual duals and BGs ofc. And really good small groups form to mainly farm large groups of unskilled players for AP rather than each other.

There are also occasions where maybe three EP are fighting 20+ AD, and instead of being a nuisance to them both, I will fight alongside the EP. I try to even odds out because honestly, my gameplay revolves around taking resources, zergsurfing when I’m nearby a keep that’s about to get taken, and fighting in areas where the two opposing factions are. 1vXers tend to have to do that to actually remain playing solo despite going far from their closest spawn point - not very enticing to engage great players that can almost certainly take you down when they run together, since you can just let them pass and continue fighting everyone else.

When I say great btw, I don’t mean some random with a high rank or your typical Stam Warden meta chaser. I mean the players that still play PvP since launch and who are very comfortable with their class. Not too many of those.

Bislobo wrote: »

Experienced/"skilled" players usually avoid fighting each other in open world because it's a waste of time. In duels and BG's they engage and test their builds to the fullest extent.

Fight can be very long... So yes its kinda irrelevant.