What class should I play to have fun in pvp

SunBroDesion · May 2021

Just returning player trying to figure out what I should play. I'm a very aggressive player who takes a lot of chances (and fails) in fights but I like to have a good escape, what class would be best for that thinking I want to stay magical based and ranged, although I could change that with the proper suggestion. Would love to hear everyone's suggestions and why I should play a certain class and how fun it is ,thanks in advance

Ythotha · May 2021

you described sorc

INe_Saninus · May 2021

Magsorc or Stamblade sniper to stay at range.
Cloak Stamblade or Stamsorc if you want to get personal.
A well played Stamblade can be a thing of beauty if you're looking to X. Takes a decent amount of skill to accomplish that though. But with skill, I would argue that is the highest tier for solo play with the ability to engage and disengage at will. You can just make a complete fool out of decent players.
Risky but rewarding.

Magsorc does meet your specifications the best though.

Just don't choose DK and you should have a good time.

validifyedneb18_ESO · May 2021

What you need is one of the true role hybrid classes.

I reccomend Magplar and Magden. (Magplar is harder imo as you are limited in healing outside of damaging enemies).

Why:
- Both classes have a tank/heal and damage skill line, making them very versatile to build
- Both classes are both very tanky while able to deal a crazy amount of damage. Glass canons may sound fun but in reality out side of stealth spam nonsense which even than has limits, you are always going to take damage in this game, you need to be able to tank heal and roll a certain amount of damage to stay in the fight and do the damage.
- Magden is easier, largely because their main heal, living trellis, is both a (basically) heal over time, and a instant powerful heal when spammed - making it both very versatile as a single slot ability, but also usable when running away or out of combat. It is in my mind the single best heal in the game outside of being/having a dedicated healer.
- Magica because it frees up your stamina for rolling and running (spoiler: use your stamina on something like bladestorm, hurricane or wings and use major expedition to move faster without running, this way you are at 100% stamina when you get to the fight AND didnt have to walk the whole way there)
- Magplar requires crazy agression, you need to be charging from 1 player to the next picking them off 1 by one, you are only tanky if you are actively killing someone so you have to move fast and kill fast, but when done right you tear through enemies very fast
- Magden is a bit slower, you have the benefit of medium range, but you want to get quite close to people to use your ground frost effects for slows, you want fortress and trellis up 100% of the time as you will be well within attack range of most if not all enemies. When you pop your northernstorm ultimate (dont use permafrost, you dont get the extra max mag and its really only for people who like to cheese stuns), at this point you can push fully into an enemies back lines and take them out. Ive gotten an 7 kill killstreak before on my magden in BGs, which I have yet to acheive on any other build - would have been 8 but someone stole the 8th kill, rude.

With either of these builds I can comfortably sit on the top of the leaderboards in a BG, hit 1m+ damage, maintain a very positive KD ratio which means less time spent dead more time killing. Any build works, these builds are my 2 most fun for PVP.

Vevvev · May 2021

Dragonknight is very aggressive, but you also want a good escape tool....Some say Sorc but that's one of those classes that is all about staying at range and fragging people from far away. If you're that melee fighter than I suggest Nightblade and have your escape tool be Cloak and/or Shade. Shade allows you to recall/teleport to the shade and cloak allows you to turn invisible at will. Just be careful with Dragonknights like myself and Templars casting Magelight and spamming AoE attacks to try and tear you out of cloak.

itscompton · May 2021

Either a MagSorc or SNB would satisfy your needs. I have both and they are my two favorite PvP characters.
Magsorc is all about keeping up shields at all times,maintaining range with streak and then bursting with curse/comet/frag/execute. Streak is a much more reliable escape compared to cloak in my experience, especially when there are enemies all around.
SNB is my absolute favorite though because when cloak works correctly being able to disappear and ditch groups as they run around with their pitifully small magelights or evil hunters active trying to find you is awesome. Plus it has a great gap closer, a melee spammable that hits hard and stuns, an unblockable AOE stun in fear, and you can always open fights with a guaranteed crit on Dawnbreaker. I run DW/Bow and on the bow I can range by applying consuming trap+poison injection and then weaving LA with Bombard as a spammable. The attack that procs on Relentless Focus hits really hard from range but I find building the stacks to get it frustrating and buggy so I don't use it anymore.

fred4 · May 2021

The first thing that came to mind was stamsorc. Then you said mag...

I do take it you're asking about PvP. I'll comment on the classes that I play:

Stamsorc is crazy fun, because you can rush in, attempt to burst someone, then immediately rush out in case you've miscalculated or the situation changes. Ball of Lightning is extremely powerful. Both morphs really.

Stam DK is merely OK. Take Flight is great, opportunistic and very satisfying, but the class doesn't feel terribly effective to me right now. A sitting duck, compared to stamsorc. Whoever said it's an aggressive class, errr, no. I find I have to be quite patient, applying my DOTs, my spammable, then leaping into execute strategically. I guess they may have been talking about mag DK, which I don't play.

Templars, as someone else said, need to be played very aggressively. I find stamplar hard to get to grips with, due to the healing coming almost entirely from just Rally and Vigor, unless you play a health-based Kristofer ESO (YouTube) type build. A fun class, because many skills are very direct. You have a burst heal on magplar, a gap closer, an execute. Good escape, though? Nope.

Magden I find the most boring class ever (I have not tried necro). It's all about the buff management and lashing out in a general direction with Shalks. No mobility to speak of. Every class has access to Race Against Time or Mist Form anyway. Terrible from a fun perspective.

That leaves nightblades. I'm a long-standing melee magblade main. If you build it right, the class can be fun, but nightblades benefit a lot from dodge rolling for defense (into cloak). That puts a melee magblade at a disadvantage over their stamblade cousins. In general it's easier to create a viable stamblade. You end up with significantly more damage, kind of by default. More difficult to play than stamsorc, unless a pure sniper, but fun and good escape tools.

ESO_Nightingale · May 2021

validifyedneb18_ESO wrote: »

- Magden is easier, largely because their main heal, living trellis, is both a (basically) heal over time, and a instant powerful heal when spammed - making it both very versatile as a single slot ability, but also usable when running away or out of combat. It is in my mind the single best heal in the game outside of being/having a dedicated healer.

maybe the burst was good 2 years ago. the burst heal now is absolutely atrocious. you can't survive even moderate punishment by spamming it's burst.

Gilvoth · May 2021

sorcerer or warden is the only class that can do what your asking for.

fred4 · May 2021

ESO_Nightingale wrote: »

validifyedneb18_ESO wrote: »

- Magden is easier, largely because their main heal, living trellis, is both a (basically) heal over time, and a instant powerful heal when spammed - making it both very versatile as a single slot ability, but also usable when running away or out of combat. It is in my mind the single best heal in the game outside of being/having a dedicated healer.

maybe the burst was good 2 years ago. the burst heal now is absolutely atrocious. you can't survive even moderate punishment by spamming it's burst.

I tend to agree. Trellis was always about being cheap, rather than strong as a burst. That worked (for me) when shields could not be crit and Northern Storm gave a permanent magicka buff. Shields just worked better in the past. Shielding up gave more time to heal. I don't know how to best build magden today, but it seems to me the standout skill, these days, is Arctic Blast with high health.

fred4 · May 2021

Gilvoth wrote: »

sorcerer or warden is the only class that can do what your asking for.

Are they or are you just saying they're strong specs? Magsorc sure seems the answer, but warden - stamden (let's go with the meta, here) - plays quite differently. Neither magden nor stamden have the escape tool the OP is asking for. While they're solid and can be tanky, a class with such tools is IMO better suited to taking a lot of chances. As to playing aggressive, that's just par for the course for most PvP builds. I suppose maybe what you mean is that a tanky stamden can stay aggressive on their front bar longer than some other specs. That's another way of looking at the OPs request, I guess.

validifyedneb18_ESO · May 2021

An "escape" tool like bolt is really not that good as an escape tool, it takes a solid second of standing in place before it teleports you 3 meters.

Speed, the ability to roll and solid self healing is the best escape tool in the game.

MashmalloMan · May 2021

validifyedneb18_ESO wrote: »

An "escape" tool like bolt is really not that good as an escape tool, it takes a solid second of standing in place before it teleports you 3 meters.

Speed, the ability to roll and solid self healing is the best escape tool in the game.

It's instant cast and they removed the issue with not keeping momentum like 2 patches ago. You can straight up do manuevers around ledges now, reaching positions no one can get to since you keep your momentum instead of pausing at the end of the teleport. It's the best escape tool in the game, not sure what you're smoking.

OP is describing Sorc's playstyle. Stam Sorc is more of a brawler, mag sorc is more of a pew pew from ranged, but you can really play anyway you want.

SaliciaKeyz · May 2021

Templars and DKs are up close, even mag-based.

Sorc is solid at a distance and very mobile, very survivable.

The other 3 classes, it depends on what you use.

master_vanargand · May 2021

You should not choose a class by strength.
Choose the class you love.
Love makes you stronger.

SunBroDesion · May 2021

master_vanargand wrote: »

You should not choose a class by strength.
Choose the class you love.
Love makes you stronger.

You are very correct, need to learn by playing them all, but pvp viability(1vX) is a big condition I have for maining a class for a bit

Skazur · May 2021

Clear call for sorc.
Easy to lern, mediocre to master. Annoying toolset: choose what you'll fight against, escape at your willing and its the only magicka which can build completely for offense without the downside of being a onehit. cause your main defense scales with.
Chainpop shields and throw up to 10k instant crystal frags like a mortar.