Mudball ambush techniques

goatlyonesub17_ESO · February 2020

I've just begun the Great Re-Download, and it looks like it's going to take about twelve days to finish. So my Murkmire Celebrating has come to an abrupt end. While I'm off-the-game, I'll share some of my wonderful mudball ambushing secrets.

There are basically four techniques for splatting other players with mudballs.

1. Trot through an area of high player density, tossing at everyone you pass, then escape via a wayshrine or a travel-cart when your annoyed victims start chasing after you, swinging their weapons.

2. Throw mudballs from a place of hiding. There are some excellent hiding spots (inside shrubbery or in tree branches, for example) in Davon's Watch, Vukhel Guard, and Daggerfall. It helps a lot if you are wearing camouflage clothing, such as a Priest Of The Green robe dyed thalmor black or bandit boss brown. Players have run right through me, looking for me, but not seeing me.

3. Have your player stand to the left side of a doorway (as you look in) leaning against the outer wall of a building, while doing the /leanbackcoin emote. It should look as if your character is bored and is just flipping a coin to while away the time. Every time a player runs inside through that doorway, you hit him with a mudball. Every time a player enters the game inside the building, you hit him with a mudball. Now to make this work, you must have one of your F keys macroed with /leanbackcoin, so that you can toss the mudball and then go back to flipping the coin in the blink of an eye. Don't throw at players who are outside of the building, and don't throw at players when there's someone suspicious of you lurking just outside the door watching every move you make.

4. Dang, I know that there is another technique, but it seems to have slipped my mind. Heh heh heh...

goatlyonesub17_ESO · February 2020

Oh yes.

4. As you emerge from a wayshrine transit, if there are other players just standing at the zone entrance point, you can toss mudballs at players within range, and as long as you don't move out of that knot of innocent players, nobody will be able to tell who's doing the throwing.

goatlyonesub17_ESO · February 2020

Here are some of the many places for Mudball Goblins to hide while causing the clothing of other players to undergo a temporary change of color.

LEANBACKCOIN TECHNIQUE

1. In front of the stables by the Vukhel Guard Wayshrine, leaning back against the front wall just to the left side of the entrance (to someone on the outside looking in).
2. In front of the Clothing/Metalsmithing Station in Daggerfall, leaning back against the wall just to the left side of the entrance.
3. In Craglorn, in front of the stone support for the lamp post that is to the left side of the way from the Gem & Flask / Wayshrine area leading up toward the Merchant Plaza where the fountain is. The downside of this is that lots of people are going to be watching you, and sooner or later they'll start splatting you back.

HIDING TECHNIQUE, DAGGERFALL

1. Inside the Cart to Wrothgar, targeting the street that goes from the Wayshrine around by the Battlegrounds NPC gathering. Bonus to this is, when you get caught, you can use the cart to escape.
2. In the stables just downhill from the metal/clothing crafting station. Hide behind the barrels in the back of the stall on the side, facing the bridge over the creek that runs through town.
3. Standing on the far wheel of the nearest merchant cart. While hiding, your character will be low enough that the cart will block him from view. Target players moving along the road between the bridge over the creek and the metal/clothing crafting station pavilion.
4. In the crenelated area near the bridge and across the street from the woodcrafting station, there is a spot where the crenelations hide your character from players moving across the bridge, but you can still splat them if they are approaching the woodcrafting station, and, if they aren't moving too fast, even when they are going in the other direction.
5. There are two trees in which a small character can hide while throwing mudballs at players going into the metalworking/clothing crafting stations. One of them is just to the left of the entrance stairs. The other is between a large tree and a stone barrier (where you can also splat players in the other direction, on the road).
6. There is a tree on the left side of the woodworking/dye building in which your character can hide while splatting players as they run into the building.

Tip: Hiding in trees works best at night and for Mudball Goblins wearing appropriately camouflagy clothing.

HIDING TECHNIQUE, VUKHEL GUARD

1. In Vukhel Guard, near the Crafting Station pavilion, there's a small evergreen tree enclosed on 3 sides by a crumbling low wall. You position your mudballing character inside the tree in such a way that the wall hides your boots. You can splat players going into the pavilion on your side of it. You can splat players using the nearest clothing station. You can splat players moving along either street that intersects near where your character is hiding.
2. In the branches of the white-flowered tree near the wayshrine, splatting people moving along the roads.
3. In the branches of the pink-flowered tree in front of the bank.

goatlyonesub17_ESO · February 2020

Ah. There's a FIFTH technique!

5. Imitate an NPC. When imitating NPC's, your mudball goblin character should dress as they do, not in his usual hiding clothes.

In Vulkhel Guard, for example, you can dress your character like an Auridon Marine and position him in that group standing in front of the bank (where you might have first met Queen Ayrenn). Stand between the two armored fellows who are far enough apart that it looks like there should be someone in between them.

Also, in Daggerfall, there's a cluster of NPC's listening to the Town Crier (hear ye, hear ye). There are, in addition to the Town Crier, six other NPCs formed into two rows. In the back row, there's a space that looks like someone ought to be standing there. Put your mudball character in that spot, wearing clothes that seem to fit in with the local fashion, and it might help to remove your weapons, since none of the NPCs have them. From there, you can splat mudballs on players going by.

VaranisArano · February 2020

Here I mostly just threw them at players who swooped in to grab a resource node while I fought the mobs that normally guard it...

*bows to the masters*

goatlyonesub17_ESO · February 2020

In Orsinium, there's a bush near the Wayshrine that a small character can hide in, if he is facing in the right direction (which is, approximately, the direction where Durang falls off the wall and kills himself about every 30 minutes). While hiding inside that bush, I've evaded detection for hours while multiply splatting players who were going crazy trying to find who was throwing the mudballs. (Eventually, you always get caught and it's expected that the mudball throwing player will cutely run away and escape by the nearest wayshrine.)

goatlyonesub17_ESO · February 2020

Mudball Goblins should...
1. Be small
2. Have relatively dark skin
3. If hiding, wear camouflage clothes, which usually means dark colored. Priest-of-the-green robes are excellent for this purpose, if they are dyed thalmor black or wolf fur brown, or some similar color.
4. If hiding, wear a dark colored hood or hat that conceals the face, if such does not come with the costume itself
5a. Hide cleverly, or...
5b. Brazenly play the innocent bystander, just flipping a coin/juggling pumpkins/etc., or...
5c. Imitate NPCs exquisitely well

Sjestenka · February 2020

Exellent topic! Can't wait for NPC Guard Ambush Techiniques article!

goatlyonesub17_ESO · February 2020

Throw mudball at guard. Cast Rapid Retreat spell. Click the Flee option. Run Run Run Run... This is good for fulfilling the get away from guards 100 times quest. Of course, you can also just run up on a guard and whack him with your weapons.

goatlyonesub17_ESO · February 2020

There are two places just outside Davon's Watch where your mudball goblin character can hop up on a rock and throw at players.

One of them is just past the stables. You hop up on the rock spike where there's a ledge about halfway to the top and where you are concealed from players who are heading toward, or who are inside, the stables.

The other is just past the Impressario pavilion where you buy indrik feathers and berries. Again, you climb upon the rock where there's a very small ledge to hide on and where you can't be directly observed by players approaching, or inside, the pavilion. You can also toss mudballs at players who are moving along the road that goes past the pavilion.

Two other hiding spots in this general area include:

1. Right outside the city gate. Your mudball goblin, dressed in camouflage clothes, crouches just outside the wall by the steps leading out of town. From here, you can, in 3rd person view, see players coming out of the city while they are still in the tunnel and so be ready for them. And you can splat on players going into the city also, right before they go into the tunnel.

2. Inside the fountain, hiding behind one of the stone thingys. From here, you can splat players coming out of the city gate, players approaching from the Wayshrine as they leap over the low wall, and players coming from the stables.