Heavy Armor and Crit Resist in PVP

THEDKEXPERIENCE · December 2018

For years I wore light armor in PVP with very low crit resist essentially relying on my shields. I never had much issue with it with the exception of snipers ... it was always very easy to kill me from ranged stealth if I was unprepared. The “thhhhooop-thhhhooop” sound of incoming death was one that I just came to acknowledge as part of life in Cyrodiil. No biggie.

Anyway, in respecking my toon I figured I’d give some actual real armor a try. Went 5-1-1 heavy, got both resists to around 30k, and maxed out the CP crit resist tree at 1650.

Here is what I’ve noticed. Please keep in mind that I likely have a thousand PVP hours over the last 4 years even though I’ve barely played this year.

Improvement: I no longer insta-die by sniper.

Failure: Essentially everything else.

There seems to be almost no benefit from the massive resistances other than not getting one shot from a sniper. I could do everything else defensively - lasting just as long - with LA and harness magic as I can now in HA with ward ally. Except now I can’t kill anyone one on one.

Is that really the big deal about crit resist? That you lower the likelihood of being one shot on a horse and literally nothing else? I just don’t see what the big deal is. I was much more survivable in LA with 50k magic than HA with 41k. Previously I could spam heals and shields until my attacker was out of stamina and still have 20k magic left for a counter attack. Now I just ... um ... die like I should?

I think I’m just gonna go back to being chum for snipers. It’s way better than dying to EVERYONE else and not them. Haha.

Stebarnz · December 2018

So you're saying, from an experienced pvp players point of view, that you can still spam shields and stay alive successfully in LA AND have good damage output as opposed to having to stack HA and resists?
Take note shield nerf cry pants!
I agree btw in PVP it is just a learning process.

THEDKEXPERIENCE · December 2018

Stebarnz wrote: »

So you're saying, from an experienced pvp players point of view, that you can still spam shields and stay alive successfully in LA AND have good damage output as opposed to having to stack HA and resists?
Take note shield nerf cry pants!
I agree btw in PVP it is just a learning process.

Yes. Absolutely yes. If I pump my Templar up past 50k magic I can spam the heck out of shields and heals and survive about 90% of out of stealth nightblade attacks with enough left for a counter. Literally the only thing I can’t defend against is the sniper causing a health desync but that’s like a once an hour thing.

It takes a lot of practice but there are plenty of defenses available - mist form for one - that can be used in place of just strapping on more and more armor.

At the end of the day though, if you’re attacked by multiple people at the same time you’re still likely going to die eventually regardless of what you’re wearing or your skill level.

Stebarnz · December 2018

Well played sir, I found the same but got shot down when I tried to explain.

Skander · December 2018

Heavy armor with magicka= no damage.

that's the balance

ofc if you aren't argonian that is

Waffennacht · December 2018

My observations/questions would be:
You're on a class with a spot heal, a longer TTK isn't as beneficial as you can reset better than most
I don't see your max health stat; resistance is only going to minimally increase TTK without the correspondencing increase to max health
What's your sustain like? My high resistance builds can't burst, they out last an opponent's ability survive, meaning not all targets will be kill-able

Crit resistance prevents most 100-0s; and yes that's really the only point to it; and that's very valuable. When, for example, a BG comes down to 2 kills for winner then that sinper 100-0ing you makes a difference.

Open world vs BGs is significantly different too, your tank may be much better in BGs

THEDKEXPERIENCE · December 2018

Waffennacht wrote: »

My observations/questions would be:
You're on a class with a spot heal, a longer TTK isn't as beneficial as you can reset better than most
I don't see your max health stat; resistance is only going to minimally increase TTK without the correspondencing increase to max health
What's your sustain like? My high resistance builds can't burst, they out last an opponent's ability survive, meaning not all targets will be kill-able

Crit resistance prevents most 100-0s; and yes that's really the only point to it; and that's very valuable. When, for example, a BG comes down to 2 kills for winner then that sinper 100-0ing you makes a difference.

Open world vs BGs is significantly different too, your tank may be much better in BGs

Gotcha. Off of memory my health in Cyrodiil is currently about 30k after battle spirit and food. Previously it was about 22k give or take.

My resists are, and always have been pure crap. Vampire problems with health, stamina really doesn’t matter for this character, magic regen is a problem (a ridiculously low 750ish) but I heavy attack a lot with my resto staff and have a bunch of regain resource morphs where applicable. When I had 50k+ magic, magic sustain was no issue because I it was realllllllly hard to empty my gas tank. At 33 or so, yeah, no, I can’t sustain for crap.

That 20k or so of extra magic makes way more difference than the resists seem to.

I think I’m gonna split the difference later, keep the max CP crit resist and lower the spell/weapon resist by switching back to LA to see how that works.

Theory crafting makes for a fun NYE!