When will there be a new dlc dedicated to PVP

newtinmpls · May 2021

Money.

They said "never" to housing; but player demand and MORE importantly player spending changed that.

Lots of peeps like PvP, but apparently they aren't spending enough to make more development worth it.

nukk3r · May 2021

ESO may have been advertised as a PvP game 7 years ago but it had changed. It's more of a TES experience with friends now. PvP is a joke and more of a self joke when someone calls it competitive. It's an imbalanced mess, that breaks PvE meta every quarter. It doesn't have a ranked ladder, Emperor title is being sold left and right, Alliance ranks are more indicative of one's leeching/PvDoor activity rather than actual combat. The only change to it that I personally can get behind would be a complete removal from the game.

RupzSkooma · May 2021

I am mainly a SRPG player(CK3,TES mainline,Gothic 2 and so on), I play this game for lore also.
But I might be in a minority but I will insta buy a PVP DLC.It sacrifices a lot of quality of a SRPG for being an MMORPG but it doesn’t have what MMO excels in.I will also play a group zone like old days Craglorn.I also want solo friendly contents from now and then but you know what actually truly is solo friendly, a single player game offline game with optional coop.

cguiao · May 2021

I almost never post on this forums, but i would really like to see ZOS give us private battleground lobbies, i mean, the system is already built, just give us some way to organize the matches, so we could do 4x4x4 private matches with full teams, choosing the map and the type of match, and of course, not worth anything, in terms of rewards, but worth a lot for the enjoyment of us that prefer PVP.
C'mon is such an easy thing to implement!

Celephantsylvius_Bornasfinmo · May 2021

They should do it. I think they'd be surprised by the amount of people buying it.

zelaminator · May 2021

nukk3r wrote: »

ESO may have been advertised as a PvP game 7 years ago but it had changed. It's more of a TES experience with friends now. PvP is a joke and more of a self joke when someone calls it competitive. It's an imbalanced mess, that breaks PvE meta every quarter. It doesn't have a ranked ladder, Emperor title is being sold left and right, Alliance ranks are more indicative of one's leeching/PvDoor activity rather than actual combat. The only change to it that I personally can get behind would be a complete removal from the game.

*PvP elements, not a PvP game.. Small difference, but important

Reverb · May 2021

Never gonna happen. People lost their minds when the only pvp-ish DLC dropped. And people rage every year during Midyear Mayhem, claiming its unfair they are “forced to pvp” even though tickets and loot boxes drop from the IC dungeons.

Zeni develops for casuals, and most casual players don’t want pvp content.

kosh_ESO · May 2021

I suspect it is more likely that they will advertise a huge revamp of cyrodil and the city as PvE zones. It would be cheap content and make it available to more people. Most of the player base are PvE and this would make more content available.

I don't think you will ever see another PvP DLC. Not enough people play it to justify the investment.

CoronHR · May 2021

i would love for there to be a new pvp area. the island of Pyandonea, battling sea elves and other players. not sure what shape that should take. ppl tend to nix a battle royale idea.

but 1) zos caters to pve and 2) zos has major problems with what would otherwise be excellent pvp, which is cyrodiil. i think the first point though is why they won't release a new pvp zone

Lumsdenml · May 2021

They really missed their chance with this chapter. Could have been a pvpve zone like ic. I mean, it is Cyrodiil....

joerginger · May 2021

Lumsdenml wrote: »

They really missed their chance with this chapter. Could have been a pvpve zone like ic. I mean, it is Cyrodiil....

That would have driven off quite a lot of players or at least made them skip the chapter completely. One IC is too many already.

MarioMario · May 2021

Best new PvP content would be... a working Cyrodiil.

Brrrofski · May 2021

Probably never unfortunately.

I wish they'd even just have another go at fixing IC.

The flags hurt it way more then before. Firstly, there's way more down time between fights.

Secondly, because people just flip it to farm stones as the stones rate is way more up top, it killed the sewers.

Remove the flags, give more of an incentive for going there and figure out how to not make it just a pve farm again.

jle30303 · June 2021

What would a new DLC that's "PVP-focused" actually do?

Like, would it provide a new area and story content in which PVP was enabled? If so, you'd get all the complaints from the PVE people who wouldn't be able to play the story without being ganked.

And if it doesn't have PVE content, then what would distinguish it from the *existing* PVP zones - in which there are already, often, not exactly a large number of players?

I mean, look at Cyrodiil, even when it's supposedly "full" and you can't get in... if you ARE in, there are still huge swathes of the map in which you will never, ever see another player except the rare PVE quester, fisherman or skyshard hunter, who doesn't want to fight you, and frankly you don't want to fight them either because if you're in those areas, it's not other players that you're there for.

PVP content is "other players to fight". All else is window dressing.

LightYagami · June 2021

I copied my reply to another thread...

I'm not sure about the precise answer to your question but let's take a look at how ZOS handle PvP comparing to PvE.

1. When Cyrodiil is suffering from basic performance issues like disconnection, ping spike, desync, unable to cast skills, unable to break free, unable to light attack, unable to swap bars... ZOS keeps putting resources in PvE, for example adding PvE contents, PvE DLC, PvE chapters, PvE companion, PvE Dungeons, PvE trials, etc. What they did to PvP is adding restrictions to Players (although personally I like no-proc). How many PvP zones do we have and how many PvE? Allocation of resources tells the answer.

2. Instead of designing better BG to attract more players, they removed the function of selecting BG game mode. It's all random now... I don't think they will remove the abiliy of selecting which dungeons PvEers want to enter.

3. They are adding monster sets in IC. Sounds good, right? The problem is that the monster sets are obtained by killing NPC bosses instead of say killing a number of players. They futher tweak IC to be PvE oriented.

4. Even during MYM (PvP event), event tickets drop by doing PvE tasks like killing NPCs, recusing NPCs, etc. Will they allow killing players in dungeons to drop event tickets? Of course not.

5. During MYM event, more players visit PvP zones and amazingly performance in PvP zones during MYM is better than usual. There are methods to improve PvP performance temporarily, but whether long-term change can be done / will be done is another story.

You can get the answer indirectly, right?

LightYagami · June 2021

newtinmpls wrote: »

Money.

They said "never" to housing; but player demand and MORE importantly player spending changed that.

Lots of peeps like PvP, but apparently they aren't spending enough to make more development worth it.

ZOS didn't make good PvP contents for players to buy, not the other way round.

PvPers have been asking for improvements, what we received are listed on my reply above.

VaranisArano · June 2021

LightYagami wrote: »

I copied my reply to another thread...

I'm not sure about the precise answer to your question but let's take a look at how ZOS handle PvP comparing to PvE.

1. When Cyrodiil is suffering from basic performance issues like disconnection, ping spike, desync, unable to cast skills, unable to break free, unable to light attack, unable to swap bars... ZOS keeps putting resources in PvE, for example adding PvE contents, PvE DLC, PvE chapters, PvE companion, PvE Dungeons, PvE trials, etc. What they did to PvP is adding restrictions to Players (although personally I like no-proc). How many PvP zones do we have and how many PvE? Allocation of resources tells the answer.

2. Instead of designing better BG to attract more players, they removed the function of selecting BG game mode. It's all random now... I don't think they will remove the abiliy of selecting which dungeons PvEers want to enter.

3. They are adding monster sets in IC. Sounds good, right? The problem is that the monster sets are obtained by killing NPC bosses instead of say killing a number of players. They futher tweak IC to be PvE oriented.

4. Even during MYM (PvP event), event tickets drop by doing PvE tasks like killing NPCs, recusing NPCs, etc. Will they allow killing players in dungeons to drop event tickets? Of course not.

5. During MYM event, more players visit PvP zones and amazingly performance in PvP zones during MYM is better than usual. There are methods to improve PvP performance temporarily, but whether long-term change can be done / will be done is another story.

You can get the answer indirectly, right?

I disagree on points 3 and 4. Because those are PvPvE zones, all those activities have the inherent threat of PVP. In fact, the recurring complaints of players who dislike PVP are specifically because they often have PVP happen while doing PvPvE activities in a PvPvE zone. It's not like PVE-only players are being handed an easy option to skip PVP in a PvPvE zone.

The rewards for events and even the new sets are basically bait to lure players into trying out the gameplay - that's true whether it's monster sets in new dungeons or in Imperial City. Again, the real content in PVP is other players. Using rewards, ZOS encourages players to show up in PvPvE zones.

As for the rest, yeah.

LightYagami · June 2021

VaranisArano wrote: »

LightYagami wrote: »

I copied my reply to another thread...

I'm not sure about the precise answer to your question but let's take a look at how ZOS handle PvP comparing to PvE.

1. When Cyrodiil is suffering from basic performance issues like disconnection, ping spike, desync, unable to cast skills, unable to break free, unable to light attack, unable to swap bars... ZOS keeps putting resources in PvE, for example adding PvE contents, PvE DLC, PvE chapters, PvE companion, PvE Dungeons, PvE trials, etc. What they did to PvP is adding restrictions to Players (although personally I like no-proc). How many PvP zones do we have and how many PvE? Allocation of resources tells the answer.

2. Instead of designing better BG to attract more players, they removed the function of selecting BG game mode. It's all random now... I don't think they will remove the abiliy of selecting which dungeons PvEers want to enter.

3. They are adding monster sets in IC. Sounds good, right? The problem is that the monster sets are obtained by killing NPC bosses instead of say killing a number of players. They futher tweak IC to be PvE oriented.

4. Even during MYM (PvP event), event tickets drop by doing PvE tasks like killing NPCs, recusing NPCs, etc. Will they allow killing players in dungeons to drop event tickets? Of course not.

5. During MYM event, more players visit PvP zones and amazingly performance in PvP zones during MYM is better than usual. There are methods to improve PvP performance temporarily, but whether long-term change can be done / will be done is another story.

You can get the answer indirectly, right?

I disagree on points 3 and 4. Because those are PvPvE zones, all those activities have the inherent threat of PVP. In fact, the recurring complaints of players who dislike PVP are specifically because they often have PVP happen while doing PvPvE activities in a PvPvE zone. It's not like PVE-only players are being handed an easy option to skip PVP in a PvPvE zone.

The rewards for events and even the new sets are basically bait to lure players into trying out the gameplay - that's true whether it's monster sets in new dungeons or in Imperial City. Again, the real content in PVP is other players. Using rewards, ZOS encourages players to show up in PvPvE zones.

As for the rest, yeah.

1. I'm taking about MYM, a PvP event officially. Not only the zone.

2. I know IC contains PvE and PvP. Now developers are further pushing it towards PvE.

PizzaCat82 · June 2021

I wouldn't mind new PVP content EVERY dlc.. not just the next one.

But no to JUST pvp content. Like others have said the percentages don't work out.

VaranisArano · June 2021

LightYagami wrote: »

VaranisArano wrote: »

LightYagami wrote: »

I copied my reply to another thread...

I'm not sure about the precise answer to your question but let's take a look at how ZOS handle PvP comparing to PvE.

1. When Cyrodiil is suffering from basic performance issues like disconnection, ping spike, desync, unable to cast skills, unable to break free, unable to light attack, unable to swap bars... ZOS keeps putting resources in PvE, for example adding PvE contents, PvE DLC, PvE chapters, PvE companion, PvE Dungeons, PvE trials, etc. What they did to PvP is adding restrictions to Players (although personally I like no-proc). How many PvP zones do we have and how many PvE? Allocation of resources tells the answer.

2. Instead of designing better BG to attract more players, they removed the function of selecting BG game mode. It's all random now... I don't think they will remove the abiliy of selecting which dungeons PvEers want to enter.

3. They are adding monster sets in IC. Sounds good, right? The problem is that the monster sets are obtained by killing NPC bosses instead of say killing a number of players. They futher tweak IC to be PvE oriented.

4. Even during MYM (PvP event), event tickets drop by doing PvE tasks like killing NPCs, recusing NPCs, etc. Will they allow killing players in dungeons to drop event tickets? Of course not.

5. During MYM event, more players visit PvP zones and amazingly performance in PvP zones during MYM is better than usual. There are methods to improve PvP performance temporarily, but whether long-term change can be done / will be done is another story.

You can get the answer indirectly, right?

I disagree on points 3 and 4. Because those are PvPvE zones, all those activities have the inherent threat of PVP. In fact, the recurring complaints of players who dislike PVP are specifically because they often have PVP happen while doing PvPvE activities in a PvPvE zone. It's not like PVE-only players are being handed an easy option to skip PVP in a PvPvE zone.

The rewards for events and even the new sets are basically bait to lure players into trying out the gameplay - that's true whether it's monster sets in new dungeons or in Imperial City. Again, the real content in PVP is other players. Using rewards, ZOS encourages players to show up in PvPvE zones.

As for the rest, yeah.

1. I'm taking about MYM, a PvP event officially. Not only the zone.

2. I know IC contains PvE and PvP. Now developers are further pushing it towards PvE.

So? My point still stands. A lot of people want to say that questing and such is "PVE" in Cyrodiil, but it's really not. It's a PvPvE zone and all that questing and NPC killing that people do for event tickets always has the risk of PVP happening. That's the whole point of the complaints and begging for a PVE-only Cyrodiil - even the "PVE" stuff in Cyrodiil isn't actually PVE-only. It always has the threat of PVP, and during events, there are usually PVPers about waiting for kills.

I mean, sure, ZOS could require players to kill other players to get their tickets, and that might be more "pure PVP". But pure player killing isn't the point of MYM, or we'd only get tickets from Battlegrounds. Celebrating the PvPvE side of Cyrodiil is just as valid as celebrating "Kill 20 Enemy Players."

And again, I disagree that putting rewards in IC bosses is moving things toward PVE. You can't have PVP if there aren't players to fight, and ZOS drawing more players in to fight the bosses IS boosting the opportunities for PVP.

Dagoth_Rac · June 2021

ZOS made a big deal out of a PvP DLC (Imperial City) as their first DLC and first post-console content. And it was a huge bust. Now Imperial City is free. ZOS' second DLC was a large PvE zone - Orsinium. It was a huge smash hit. Such a hit that those large PvE zones are now yearly "Chapters" and you have to pay for them in cash, instead of being part of ESO+ immediately like Orsinium was.

They had to give away the PvP DLC. Whereas they regretted not charging more for Orsinium. Let that sink in.

They still gave PvP some love in the first Chapter, Morrowind, by adding Battlegrounds. Another bust. There was not enough player population to get reasonable queue times into battlegrounds. They moved battlegrounds to being free base game content, in effort to increase population.

I think ZOS wanted PvP to be the main type of endgame in ESO. They made it their flagship DLC after console release. The hype was immense. And then added a hotly requested new PvP mode to first Chapter. But to paraphrase Donald Rumsfeld, you go to war with the player base you have. And the ESO player base wanted big PvE zones.

Maybe the new PvP content was not well designed, or performance was not good enough. If they tried again, they might land upon a hit formula for ESO PvP. But ZOS seem to have gotten bitten twice by poorly received PvP content that did not drive sales, and are hesitant to go in that direction again.

Amottica · June 2021

VaranisArano wrote: »

Amottica wrote: »

StamPlar_1976 wrote: »

Never. They love the casuals too much to bat an eye at us.

Has Zenimax been able to monetize PvP? The only DLC with PvP I have seen in Imperial City and it is usually dead space and it seems Zos had to give it away. Every other aspect of PvP is part of the base game so it does nothing for bringing in continued revenue.

In PVP, the real content is other players. As long as we can fight, we're going to be playing ESO and spending money. And while some players might be annoyed to not get many updates to our fighting areas, we're considerably less demanding than PVE end game players, who need 4 dungeons and a trial each year. What we want is a place to fight that works.

ZOS does monetize PVP overtly, but it's in the same way they monetize everything else in the end game: "Buy this fantastic new gear/class/feature in the New Chapter to stay competitive!" Then they nerf that stuff they knew was unbalanced later, so they can sell the latest round of unbalanced stuff. PVP players, like endgame PVEers, buy a lot of consumables like race change tokens and stuff to level up Alts in order to keep up as ZOS changes the meta. Just because you don't see ZOS selling new environments to fight in doesn't mean it isn't monetized. In fact, PVPers are more cost efficient for ZOS than PVE trial players because PVPers don't require a new environment with new boss fights every year. All we require is a place to fight that works - and it's 100% on ZOS to make sure their own game works properly. We can't do that for them.

In the larger scheme of things, ZOS has to offer some form of PVP to stay competitive in marketing themselves vs other MMOs. It doesn't have to be good PVP or working particularly well, but they have to offer it or player who're looking for that option will pass right on by. This is why all complaints advocating "ZOS should remove PVP altogether" miss the mark completely.

Finally, while ZOS might have grand plans to further monetize PVP...they can't until they fix Cyrodiil's performance problems. I really can't state that firmly enough: they can't fully monetize PVP when their flagship PVP mode performs poorly for regular PVPers, driving players who love PVP away to other games.

In PVP, the content is other players. If ZOS wants a thriving PVP community that they can monetize, they've got to fix the performance problems that are the primary reason PVPers have left over the years.

My comment comes from seeing only one other game with a hybrid business model and iirc, they provided very limited access to PvP unless a player subscribed. While I have read some PvP players suggest they need to subscribe or buy the chapter that does not mean they bring in anywhere near the same amount of revenue as the bulk of the playerbase.

So, with the exception of getting Cyrodiil to work at a level that would seem acceptable for a game of this caliber, I am not sure there is much incentive for something new. Even then, something that would work since the only PvP DLC I can find seems to be fairly empty most of the time. If that one attempt was not successful why would another attempt be any good?

Maybe they just need to figure out how to make Cyrodiil and BGs work well enough to make PvP people happy.

jle30303 · June 2021

And the trouble with PVP is, nobody likes being a target. Nobody likes being ganked. Nobody likes being put in a situation where they have literally no chance against another player.

It's nothing to do with how well the servers are working (although they aren't working very well). It's all to do with the fact that the great majority of players have zero chance against the PVP veterans, and when the response is "git gud" (and usually a pile of trash talk insults as well), it discourages people rather than encourages them.

In general, the people who come to PVP for a Midyear Mayhem, mostly don't stay. Until and unless the existing content is sufficiently appealing to new, non-proficient PVPers that a significant enough proportion of them DO stay, PVP will never deserve to have what you call "new content".

And the most important thing is to not lock people out of it further by means of poor mechanical performance, e.g. bugs, latency, inadequate servers, or indeed by artificial limits on capacity otherwise known as "full" servers - I don't care if the capacity is redundant most of the time, but there SHOULD BE NO LIMIT on people getting into (say) Cyrodiil or Imperial City. Having a PVP instance limited to 100 or even 75 or 50 of a given faction at a time, when there are literal millions of people playing this game, is ludicrous: it literally locks out the vast majority of people from the content even if they wanted it, and even during events that are supposed to be drawing them into it.

Viewsfrom6ix · June 2021

New BG map or even mode.

ThreeXB · June 2021

I would love to see a dedicated year chapter to PVP, or even a Q4 PVP focused DLC . I doubt it will happen but a guy can wish.

I remember the original game trailer...epic battles...2000 in cyrodiil, that got me so excited back in 2014ish.

As a day 1 console player I've seen so many cyrodiil content nerfs ( weather, critters, keep levels, resource destruction, group sizes, POPULATION capacity, etc ) but still am optimistic for cyrodiil's future. And I think making cyrodiil better would make for a more healthy longterm player base, I've seen alot of vet and longterm players leave eso due to cyrodiil issues.

Make cyrodiil great again

hands0medevil · June 2021

they don't have plans to use "pvp" and "dlc" in one sentence

Indigogo · June 2021

The only way some additional pvp mode/DLC might be viable is if you stripped all the fluff away, and made it straight people killing people.

That's what so many are chasing.
The ones turning every bg into a deathmatch, the ones who don't care about the campaign in cyro and just want to fight - give them a home.
Everyone would be happy.
(But it's not gonna happen, for reasons others have given).

LightYagami · June 2021

VaranisArano wrote: »

LightYagami wrote: »

VaranisArano wrote: »

LightYagami wrote: »

I copied my reply to another thread...

I'm not sure about the precise answer to your question but let's take a look at how ZOS handle PvP comparing to PvE.

1. When Cyrodiil is suffering from basic performance issues like disconnection, ping spike, desync, unable to cast skills, unable to break free, unable to light attack, unable to swap bars... ZOS keeps putting resources in PvE, for example adding PvE contents, PvE DLC, PvE chapters, PvE companion, PvE Dungeons, PvE trials, etc. What they did to PvP is adding restrictions to Players (although personally I like no-proc). How many PvP zones do we have and how many PvE? Allocation of resources tells the answer.

2. Instead of designing better BG to attract more players, they removed the function of selecting BG game mode. It's all random now... I don't think they will remove the abiliy of selecting which dungeons PvEers want to enter.

3. They are adding monster sets in IC. Sounds good, right? The problem is that the monster sets are obtained by killing NPC bosses instead of say killing a number of players. They futher tweak IC to be PvE oriented.

4. Even during MYM (PvP event), event tickets drop by doing PvE tasks like killing NPCs, recusing NPCs, etc. Will they allow killing players in dungeons to drop event tickets? Of course not.

5. During MYM event, more players visit PvP zones and amazingly performance in PvP zones during MYM is better than usual. There are methods to improve PvP performance temporarily, but whether long-term change can be done / will be done is another story.

You can get the answer indirectly, right?

I disagree on points 3 and 4. Because those are PvPvE zones, all those activities have the inherent threat of PVP. In fact, the recurring complaints of players who dislike PVP are specifically because they often have PVP happen while doing PvPvE activities in a PvPvE zone. It's not like PVE-only players are being handed an easy option to skip PVP in a PvPvE zone.

The rewards for events and even the new sets are basically bait to lure players into trying out the gameplay - that's true whether it's monster sets in new dungeons or in Imperial City. Again, the real content in PVP is other players. Using rewards, ZOS encourages players to show up in PvPvE zones.

As for the rest, yeah.

1. I'm taking about MYM, a PvP event officially. Not only the zone.

2. I know IC contains PvE and PvP. Now developers are further pushing it towards PvE.

So? My point still stands. A lot of people want to say that questing and such is "PVE" in Cyrodiil, but it's really not. It's a PvPvE zone and all that questing and NPC killing that people do for event tickets always has the risk of PVP happening. That's the whole point of the complaints and begging for a PVE-only Cyrodiil - even the "PVE" stuff in Cyrodiil isn't actually PVE-only. It always has the threat of PVP, and during events, there are usually PVPers about waiting for kills.

I mean, sure, ZOS could require players to kill other players to get their tickets, and that might be more "pure PVP". But pure player killing isn't the point of MYM, or we'd only get tickets from Battlegrounds. Celebrating the PvPvE side of Cyrodiil is just as valid as celebrating "Kill 20 Enemy Players."

And again, I disagree that putting rewards in IC bosses is moving things toward PVE. You can't have PVP if there aren't players to fight, and ZOS drawing more players in to fight the bosses IS boosting the opportunities for PVP.

Tickets should be obtained by only really doing PvP, not saving NPCs, not killing NPCs.
I disagree your disagree.

tomofhyrule · June 2021

I doubt they'll ever do a DLC specifically focused on PvP. It'll never sell, and they know it.

This forum represents a tiny fraction of the playerbase - I would be surprised if even 10% of active players regularly checked the forums. In addition, the forums skew towards people who are quite invested into the theorycrafting/gameplay/etc. stuff, so many forum users are higher-level PvErs and PvPers. The vast majority of players - the ones that ZOS has data on but we can only speculate on - are the ones who are struggling their way through delves wondering why spamming left-click on a boss with their Greatsword of the Sun doesn't seem to be doing much.

In addition, new PvP content doesn't necessarily mean that you'll turn PvErs into PvPers. A lot of PvE players were avoiding ESO because they kept talking about Cyrodiil as the endgame, and it takes a certain mindset to enjoy PvP. Why do you think we get fifteen "zomg ZOS is making me PVP!!!1!!one!" threads every MYM? A lot of these players also came from the single-player Elder Scrolls games - they don't necessarily want to see other people in their game, but they think it might be fun if they had a friend with them to do things. And if you're playing ESO the same way you play Skyrim, you're building your character completely wrong.

Many players do not find getting killed by players online fun at all - sure, some could just 'get over it,' but some also do have legit anxiety and the best way for ZOS to lose customers is to force them to PvP. ZOS knows that the never-PvP crowd in this game is huge, so they're not going to spend much time on content that so few people are going to play (and could even turn off some of their customers).

That also doesn't take into account the fact that the learning curve for PvP is insanely steep. There are players with 7 years of PvP experience being thrown into a BG against people who have never PvP'd before. Gee, how much fun do you think that is for the newbie? Not to mention that there are people who live in the u50 areas, trading golded sets between toons in order to flatten the new L10's who talked to Battlemaster Rivyn and didn't know what they were in for.

It would honestly be easier to attract PvP players from other games than try to convert some of the PvErs to PvPers in ESO. But with all of the rumors in the PvP community about the poor performance and the radical nerfhammer rebalances every other patch, that's pretty unlikely. That really means that [population of PvPers in ESO] is pretty constant. And already, this group is split between Cyrodiil, BGs, and IC. Adding a new PvP mode is more likely to fragment the PvP that already exists rather than encourage more people to PvP. We know that IC is pretty dead outside of events, and the BG population is low enough that they can't give reasonable queue times AND grouping AND selectable matches all at the same time. Plus, look at how many PvPers have "I cancelled my ESO+!" in their sigs as well - they also know there's no guarantee that their current PvP base would go into the new mode (read: buy the DLC), which would leave it with a low population (read: nobody else would want to buy it because there's nobody to PvP in there), and that means it wouldn't get much play. You know, just like IC.

Now, there are quite a few things they're doing for PvP this patch. No, it's not a new mode, but there is PvP if you look for it:

3 monster helms and shoulders that can only be obtained from a PvPvE zone. Yes, you get them from PvE bosses. But you have to also not get ganked by PvPers while you're doing so... if there were any PvPers in IC.
Endeavors which have PvP objectives thrown in. These are designed to make people try new things, and some of the ones they tested were PvP. Duel X people. Play X BG matches. Kill X characters. Do X quests in Bruma without getting ganked by someone outside the door. Avoidable yes, but it could help increase the population in PvP for those things.
A new outfit style from IC that has a better chance to drop with a higher Tel Var multiplier, which makes it more risk/more reward to trying to get them.
Proc set changes for all proc sets to try to balance PvP. Whether it was effective or not is up for debate, but I know it wasn't Nahviintas calling for nerfs to Crimson.

spartaxoxo · June 2021

Because both ZOS and the PVP players themselves has overly catered to hardcore PVP'ers making it extremely new pvp'er unfriendly. The end result is very predictable. A shrinking PVP playerbase of skilled players but little new blood that gets smaller and smaller (and consequently less and less content) as time goes on.

ZOS could make changes to make things more casual friendly to get more people into PVP. But they never will because they are afraid of running off what little base they have without successfully bringing in new blood to replace them.

This happens in many games that let the skillgap play experience be this absurd. You do want to reward skill. You want there to be stong incentive to get good. But you don't things to feel hopeless for the new guy. You also need noob tubes, restrictions with casauls in mind, etc.