PvP.. What is the appeal?

Bam_Bam · January 2019

LonePirate wrote: »

Players are tougher to kill than a typical PVE mob so there is a challenge there. Plus, you never know what to expect whereas PVE mobs are highly predictable given how they are scripted.

This.

Na0cho · January 2019

I very much doubt people started drinking alcohol for the taste. They drank it because it got them drunk and that felt good. Over time you acquire the taste, but it’s not the reason you start.

Pvp feels good when you outplay someone and win the fight. That feeling pushes you to play more. As far as keep flipping....meh. Imo Cyro needs a bit of an overhaul.

I play it for ap and to get my reward level up quick but I mostly do bg’s. Also I never play cp pvp.

You are putting your build/skills/player skill against others.

Why do people like playing chess? All you do is move pieces on a board. It’s the strategy and challenge. The W. It’s all about the W.

EllieBlue · January 2019

Its dynamic!

* Human v Human makes a rather unpredictable fight and few fights are exactly alike.
* the element of surprise - results will vary as other influencing factors can change eg. new armour, new skills, enemy player's level of experience, number of enemy players differs all the time.
* feeling of fellowship and people working together to achieve one goal - keep captures, winning a campaign, capturing scrolls - own and enemy's etc
* Winning against all odds. 1 keep, vs 2 factions, 3 - 4 gaping wall breach and you and your fellow faction-mates somehow manage to win the fight and wipe out both enemy faction and their respective zerg. The feeling of euphoria we feel, the adrenaline pumping and the sense of satisfaction and disbelief is something else. (The only other time I felt the same feeling in PvE was right after completing VMOL.)
* The tactical intelligence - which keep to take and why based on your enemies' movement, where to put the enemy scroll your faction had just capture and why etc.
* Freedom - The ability to run solo and still be able to move as a group with other solo or join a group, if and when I want to. I am not tied to a group of 4 or 12 from start to end. If I screw up, I will die for it but my screw up will not affect the progress of others or cause others to fail as well. My ability to survive pretty much rest on my own shoulder. As a solo player, I can run south, north, east, west without having to answer for it to anyone.

Unlike PvE where once you know the mechanic and have practised it enough, you are guaranteed a win. After the 3rd character, questing is like torture. After the hundreds of time running the same dungeon and trial, your fingers are running on auto-run and you don't even have to do any thinking anymore. And at CP1000+, you can cut through overland mobs and boss without as much as a pause. You run too slow, you get left behind (in dungeons), you take one step too many and you kill half the team (twins-vmol), you run too fast and end up agro-ing mobs or boss and you die and cause your team to wipe. And many other examples.

I was a strictly PVE only player in the first 2 years of eso. I used to dislike PvP with a passion. Jaded and bored, I very nearly quit the game. As the last resort, I figured I will at least try PvP at my own pace, on my own and if I hate it so much, so be it. I ended up in Daggerfall Covenant's side in Blackwater Blade (now Kyne) and I now pretty much just PvP, and exclusively for DC. I migrated to Sotha Sil after 6 months and made it my home. Love Sotha. Love DC!

GreenhaloX · January 2019

I definitely can't say that PvE is better or more enjoyable than PvP. Yes, even I got bored with PvE several times and actually took hiatus away from the game a few times; one being about 6 months. I guess it comes down to that old saying, "To each their own." Sure, some do find it challenging and enjoyable to battle other players and win; however, there is really nothing strategic or tactical about PvP in this game. You rush to another keep after keep or outpost, town, whatever, whether sololy or in group or zerg. You decimate the other incoming group or zerg and then maybe your group or zerg gets decimated by another group or zerg elsewhere. You kill a player here and there and get killed yourself here and there.

Sure, PvE is also repetitive and some peeps do make PvE too easy by always doing thing in groups. Ok, aside from trials and dungeons where you have to be in group, there are still a lot of players that can't take on world boss by themselves. I mean, there is nothing wrong with that, but over and over again, countless time how a player is calling out to others on zone chat or guild chat to come help fight world bosses. Yeah, it is easy when you have 3 or more just decimating a world boss. A lot of times, it's higher CP toons/players in medium or light armor builds. Then, some come boast that PvE content is too easy. It isn't so easy when you're taking on world bosses with 2-5 mil HP by yourself; particularly the DLC ones. It's a way to adjust and make PvE a bit more challenging; scripted or whatever. Just trying to survive the challenge sololy.

The same with PvP. It is more challenging when I go in the server where my toons are in the mid-500 CP. I have a much harder time defeating players in the 700 and above CP; whereas on the other server, I have all maxed CP toons and really not much issue in defeating max CP players. Last time I went in with my max CP toon was Sunday, and I was wrecking other players, whether sololy 1v1 or 1v2 or in a group or big zerg on zerg fight; having to return to the board to claim the award time and time again (when not crashing, of course.) Sure, I got killed here and there as well, but not as much. A lot of the players I have killed were 810 CP, and I was like, really. It can't be that easy. Unfortunately, I didn't feel the excitement or awe from killing those. It was just, ok, attack, attack and kill or killed by volleys of Lethal Arrows from the side.

Again, to each their own, and I'm not saying PvP isn't good or enjoyable at all. As in anything, some like it and some don't. I mean, going on four years now into the game, and I'm still seeing the same names on the leader board for PvP. Same as PvE; some like it and some don't. I don't hate PvP, but it hasn't been my thing in this game. Kudos for those enjoying it and it's all they do.