Hey guys, I have been playing ESO for about four months now and had a hard time understanding how PVP works. It's hard to understand what you can do and what cant you do because ESO never really tells you. Through many youtube videos, discords, personal experiences, and lurking on these forums, I think I have gathered enough information on how PVP works( please correct me if I got anything wrong). I want to break this down into a few categories starting with Armor.

This is a long post manly about Cyrdiil PVP with CP. Most of this stuff also applies to Battleground PVP just ignore the CP parts.

Armor resistances
From what I understand in PVP has an Armor cap. 33k is equivalent to 50% damage mitigation. This means roughly every 6.6k Armor is a 10% damage reduction. So obviously you want to hit the max cap all the time. But you might lose too much damage or sustain. Now every class has access to major resolve, which increases their Armor by 5k. This is important because you must always have your armor buff up. Whether you're chasing someone or running away, having your armor buff is like having a 10% damage reduction on you( about). But wait, there is MORE. Every Buff that has major and minor in it following the name of the buff ex: major resolve and minor resolve can stack. You can't have major resolve from a buff and another major resolve from an armor set stack. Understand? Good because there's something called diminishing returns. After a certain point( maybe someone in the comment can explain the diminishing point), you get less and less the more you add on. BUT...BUT... why do I die so quickly with high Armor resistances? Good question! I know I die all the time, and I learn to cry in my sleep and get back up the next day. There is more than having high hp and Armor.

Armor Penetration
So 33k is good to have to survive, right? WRONG. There is something called Penetration. If your Magicka based, it would be spell pen. If you are Stamina, it would be called physical Pen. Why is Pen so important? Well, my dear buddy, its because you can debuff the enemy or have passives that allow you to bypass there armor value to do more damage. And the math is the same as if you are adding Armor. So if you have 6.6k Pen, that means your damage is increase by 10%. So what if you have 33k Pen? Does that mean you have a 50% damage increase? Yes and no, I don't know if you can get Pen that high, but for the sake of this post, let's assume you can. Remember how I said 33k is the cap for 50% damage reduction? It is possible to go over that armor value. If you have let's say 40k Armor, you will still only have 50% damage reduction, but if someone has 6.6k Pen ( which is equal to 10% damage, cmon man keep up), that means (40k-6.6k=33k), which means they will still have 50% damage mitigation. You will need more Pen to make a dent on someone( Damn tanks). So now you understand Armor penetration and Armor resistance. Next, we move on to the Critical Resistance.

Critical resistance
This one is a quickie. Everyone has a passive of 1350 crit resist. This is approximately 20% crit resistance & every player has a base 50% increase in damage. This means if someone hits you with critical damage, you automatically reduce it by 20%, and they take 30% increase damage(50-20=30%). So the rule of thumb is to have about 3300 crit resist, which is approximately 50% crit resist. Why? Because if a player whos did not spec into crit damage build will take basically the same damage as if they never crit. You ever go into Crydiil and get hit by 12k dizzy swing or 15k execute? I sure have and let me tell you; you are butter if you don't have any crit resist. And if they are running crit build, you just reduced the damage by 50%. How do you increase critical resistance? You can increase with Champion points(CP), builds, and impen gear.

How not to die
How do I not die and do some damage? First, you need to learn to survive to do some damage. We talked about keeping your armor buff up. But you also need to have some type of heal to survive. Let's say you're a stamina class. Veteran stamina players are always keeping their buffs up, but an important buff they keep up is called Vigor. Vigor is a stamina based heal for stamina classes that Heals over time(HoT). Sure it's nice to have Armor, but it's also nice to heal. Your probably surfing youtube trying to find some PVP videos to help you understand, so you stumble on one guy killing multiple players(1vX) using a lot of techniques that you cant see on the surface. This leads me to my second lesson, having a good build. This is one of the reasons why I got into ESO. There are many many different types of Armor sets out there, and I'm sure you can find a build that can fit your play style. You can use this site Here.......... GOOOOTTTIIIII. But seriously this site.

Now, what does a good build have? Armor & crit resist/ Sustain/ damage/ Pen. You should have some type of mix between these. But wait whats sustain? In that video where one guy 1vX, he's able to keep his resources(Magicka/Stamina) up. Resources allow you to do damage and heal. You need good sustain in order to survive! For example: having 800 Magicka recovery means you recover 800 Magicka every 2 seconds in combat. That's pretty bad if you don't have anything else to keep your resources up. You will run out of resources before the fight is done. My rule of thumb is having 1.5k recovery with the help of other skills.
Another valuable lesson is learning to Line of sight(LoS) your enemy. Why? Because your literally avoiding damage; otherwise it will guarantee to hit you. LoSing is not something you can just learn. It takes skills and practices. I have seen guys running around towers able to avoid 10+ people. This is hard to do and pretty impressive if you ask me.
So whats an above-average player build? He's someone who has a build he tweaked to his playstyle, 25k HP, proper recovery, 20k resistances, 3k crit resists, good LoSing, able to heal and do good damage, and has experience.
Make a build that has the right mix of all these.

Weapon & spell damage
What's a good number to have? Its hard to say, but what most new players don't know is just because your weapon/spell damage is low does not mean you will take low damage. Remember, you can have 2k weapon damage but high Penetration. Also, having a high Max resource pool can be better than going high weapon and spell damage. You can see classes like Sorcerers that have 50k max Magicka but about 2k spell damage. This is because every 1000 Magicka is equivalent to 100 spell damage. The same thing goes for Stamina and weapon damage. It won't show on your weapon damage but will show on your ToolTip. Having the right mix of high resource pool and max damage is ok, but classes like Sorcerers do better the bigger Magicka pool they have.
On the other hand, Magicka templar has a built-in 10% spell damage increase, so they get more out spell damage than having max Magicka. So it depends on your class and builds. IMO having 4k spell or weapon damage is a good start.

Stamina
If your a stamina class, dodge roll is one of the best skills you have, almost OP...... Simply dodge rolling stops all damage( unless it can't be avoided). A simple yet effective way to survive is using Vigor, then dodge rolling to get two ticks of heals. A good player can predict what the enemy will do and choose to dodge roll when it's worth it.

Magicka
If you play a Magicka class, you have to be smarter with your Stamina because it cost Stamina to break out of hard Crowd Control (CCs) like stuns. If you have no stamina to break out, then you are pretty much dead( I don't know what they call it, but I like to call it being Stam checked). They get free hits on you, which is a big no-no. Vet player waits for this opportunity to happen. This also applies to stamina classes. To make up for this, I make sure my Stamina has about 17k Stamina. In Cyrdiil, with the right cp points and recovery, you can keep up with breaking out and managing your Stamina.
Now Magicka classes cant dodge roll all willy nilly; they have to have another way to deal with the pressure. Some players run a sword and shield on the back bar so they can block and reduce damage to a minimum. Other players throw damage shields on to be able to get smacked around a few times while staying in the offensive. Also, Magicka players have range on their side so they can avoid damage by not letting the enemy touch them. Find the best style you like

Champion Points
Here's the thing with CP, its very important. Sometimes people say having a lot of CP is good, but skills is better. I believe CP makes and breaks the fight. If you are not CP 810, you will die a lot. CP can increase your attack by 25%, reduces damage by 25%, increase Pen , Increase armor and crit resist, and give you a 15% increase in your resources. There is a lot of stats CP can increase, I'm just naming a few. Check out some youtube videos of other pvpers; their CP usually revolves around the build. CP is great for when you make up for the areas you are weak in. Having lower CP already puts you at a disadvantage in a fight. Get your Cp to 810 quickly.

How to hit hard and fast
So now we can get into the offensive side of PVP. You got a good build, and according to the dummy, you been hitting the damage looks excellent. Firstly I always take 1/3 of what the tooltip damage says and give or take that's the damage you will do on players. When you enter a PVP area, let's say Crydiil, you will have 5k more hp but be affected by battle spirit, reducing damage given by 50% & healing by 60%. Now add on the Armor and or damage mitigation the enemy has + your Pen, and that is your total damage. So 30% of your tooltip is a good number to expect.
Second, you need to have a combo to guarantee that the enemy will die. Whats a combo? It's just a bunch of skills you use in a specific order to kill the enemy as fast as possible. Every good player has a combo they can do very fast, and destroy the enemy is 2 seconds. Yes, you were that enemy that was combo to death in 2 seconds. A good combo consists of high burst damage in 2-3 seconds with a stun to guarantee the damage is going to go off. This is what we call pressure. Pressuring the enemy is great because it keeps them on the defensive and you on the offensive. It most cases, its hard to get out of defense to go to the attack. It may also include an execute skill (or any skill that will finish the enemy off) and ultimate skill. For example, say you are a stamina warden. Your main spammable is dizzy swing, you got Onslaught ultimate up, and have subterranean assault & execute on your bar. Subertainain assaults his hard but has a delay, so you start with that before the fight begins you use dizzy swing two times on the enemy to get that stun on seconds hit. The enemy is now forced to break free; this is the moment where you use your ultimate as subterranean assault goes off doing massive damage. If the enemy is not dead yet because non of your skills crit, he should be very close, and you can spam execute to finish him off. Execute increase its damage the lower the enemy health is. Every stamina class has access to it, while Magicka classes may have their own version. This combo is wildly used by Stamina wardens and does massive damage if timed right. Now you need to figure out a combo that you can use. Burst damage is the name of the game, and keeping pressure on an enemy is a must. Good players can heal and LoS if they start being attacked, but if you get a combo off, they will panic.

Another good mention is debuffing the enemy first before the fight. Like if you are a Magicka class, you can use Elemental weakness, which gives the enemy major fracture increase you spell Pen by almost 6k. This is like saying you will hit the enemy for 10% increase damage on all your Magicka skills.

Buffs/ Potions/Food/ Mundas
It's important to say that the buffs/food/drink/potions/Mundas largely depend on what build you are trying to make or what your build is missing. Take a look at all the options before making/buying food.

Let us start with buffs. At the minimum, you should always have major protection up as we discussed. Some classes have access to buffs, while others have to use potions. As a Stamina class, you should have these buffs: Major savagery, brutality, Vigor, & Minor protection. As a Magicka class, Major Prophecy, Sorcery, Heals(Could be a burst heal or HoT), & Minor protection. Potions are a great way to make up for low resources or add an increase to stats.

Tri stat potions are potions that recover your health, Stamina, and Magicka on top of giving you major intellect, endurance, & Fortitude. These are the most widely used and helpful in long fights. If you can't afford those, you can buy potions from siege merchants in Crydiil using AP. These potions offer other buffs like major sorcery, intellect, and prophecy for a Magicka class. It's important to note that if you invest in an alchemy skill line called medical use, you can keep these buffs up.

The best food is also similar is tri stat foods that increase your maximum health and resources. Remember when I said 25k HP is a good number? Having food is an excellent way to get there. Some foods/drinks also increase your recovery. Useful if you are making a build that's lacking in the recovery department.

The Mundas stones are great buffs that stay active until you take it off. There are many stones that give off different buffs such as Max hp, Stamina, magick. You got stones that increase your weapon and spell damage. Some increase your Penetration or resistance. Also, Stones that increase crit rate or crit damage. Like I said before, depending on the build your going after these Mundas stones will help. Always have a Mundas stone buff active they are free, and you can find them anywhere in ESO. Some PVE and PVP guilds already have them at their houses. You can try joining them. Always test around to get the best results.


How do I git gud?
Duel a lot and battlegrounds. Duels teach you how to keep your buffs up and keep calm under pressure while trying to make your next move while battleground teaches you about managing your resources, LoSing, and group PVP. They both give you the experiences you need to grow. I can see it now, one day you will be fighting for 30mins because you and the enemy are trying to catch the other slipping!

THANK YOU!
This is my crash course of PVP in ESO. I know everything is all over the places, but I hope I made it clear for you! Also sorry for the bad grammar. If anyone would like to add or fix anything, please comment. I want to give new players an edge in PVP because I never had that pleasure, and it can get confusing because one second you are in a fight, and next, you die. I have wanted to post for some time, but ZOS decided to take a month to give me an invitation code.

I think ZOS should add a 1V1 mode like battlegrounds. Some MMO I played had this feature, and you learn a lot about your class and other classes you VS. We all love that one player that's easy to kill & doesn't know whats going on, but we all hate that player to be in our team.