Does anyone enjoy IC?

Mandragora · September 2021

Maybe the big battles could have been fun aswell and it is just hard to imagine it, my problem is that stealth player can just take one player by one if nobody does have search skill, but maybe it wouldn't be so popular if there would be more of big battles. I guess I will have to see IC for myself now, when there is no event with ducks - lol that is definitely me trying to see the scenery and figure out possible routes.

kargen27 · September 2021

I'm not really a 1vX player but I'm guessing during those big battles the stealth fighters could find a place on the path back to the fight to jump stragglers or to catch players that wandered to far from the main group. Now I'm not sure Imperial City sees enough traffic outside of events to make solo PvP exciting game play. Maybe during prime time?

Nogawd · September 2021

I love going there, but only on 2 of my characters. I have a ganker and a very tanky healing templar.

I know ZOS imagined close battles, fun with PvE and PvP elements, and the risk of telvar looks great on paper. However, it did just turn into a ganking NB zone that fears away most other build diversity.

So like most PvP, we see the same thing pop up of low population and how to fix it.

Artim_X · September 2021

I love Dark Souls and the idea of invading another player's world or fighting off an invader. Imperial City and the concept of tel var gives me that experience.

As a sorc before the vamp change, I would sneak around and use invisibility pots as needed. Now I can vamp run at stage 4 to become invisible. I can essentially run around an entire district without being seen and take cover as needed. IC has become a lot more fun with the unnatural movement passive that makes me invisible while running, so I definitely enjoy an occasional romp around the city.

NoxiousBlight · September 2021

Yes, IC is easily the best zone in the game.

The aesthetic is fantastic, the (short) story line is pretty good, and the PvP is excellent.

TelVar I am pretty meh about as a system, I would actually prefer not losing TV upon death as I think it would attract more people to the zone, but it is what it is.

Unfortunately IC suffers from a population problem. People just don't play much outside of events. I think the addition of monster masks and the wizard motifs was a great idea and they should do more things like that. The PvP is better in IC because for some reason IC never lags like Cyro, but people are always in Cyro, so I go to Cyro. I like the addition of the PvE elements as it makes it feel a bit more alive in there all the time.

When there is an IC event on you can't tear me away from that zone. Half the time I can't even be bothered to do writs because I want to get into the action the second ESO loads up.

fred4 · September 2021

It has been my favorite place in the game since the day it was released and continues to be so.

I prefer open world to BGs. I have historically financed my other in-game activities almost exclusively with Tel Var. I like the mix between PvE and PvP. Always something to do, but with the danger of PvP to spice things up.

While I am a (single target, melee) magblade main, I also play other classes. Yes, it helps being a nightblade or a sorc, but that is true for open world solo play in general. I enjoy IC on all the classes that I play. If you feel that nightblades are dominating in IC and you haven't played and become reasonably proficient with one yourself, I'll only say that doing so gained me some perspective. Nightblades, like every class, have their limits and weaknesses. There is nothing like playing one yourself to get a feel for that. You'll become less aggrieved on other classes as a result and you either learn how to kill them or, at the very least, begin to better appreciate the relative merits of your other classes in the rock / paper / scissors world of ESO.

For me the game has always been about finding interesting fights and (slowly) improving at combat. Fights against equally skilled players, all out brawls or sometimes outnumbered fights. I simply enjoy inhabiting my character, the movement and maneuvering aspect of the game, the fact that the game generally works in IC without lag. While I prefer to help my alliance in Cyrodiil, to say that the objectives, there, provide any great incentives would be a lie. The main CP campaign used to be tightly contested in previous years. These days it's dominated by the yellow faction. The outcome of the war is a foregone conclusion, so what's the point?

It comes down to what type of player you are, I guess. If you enjoy dueling and small-scale, you probably enjoy IC. If you enjoy playing in big groups, you probably enjoy Cyrodiil.

Iriidius · September 2021

IC was fun a while ago when there were mainly solo players. You could run around and kill NPCs and sometimes you got attacked by another player and duelled him. Last IC event i rarely got attacked by solo players, only by groups. Most of the groups gankers were at least decent players so it was impossible to 1vX them or run away from them so the moment they attack you you are already dead.
So I wrote lfg to join a group myself, but didnt got an answer. So I tried to found my own group, but couldnt find enaugh members.
I dont think it is fun to get groupganked and give my tel var to players that fight unfair.

Mandragora · September 2021

So after reading another bunch of positive posts from players who do enjoy IC now, it seems to me like really the way how to change something in the zone without making it worse for those players could be adjusting only sewers to solo play by removing some of those big packs of mobs and adding more of traps like those from hists - where you could use it for more of tactics - and adding roaming solo lesser bosses which would move and thus would be harder to camp near them and they would behave the same way like players, but more predictable - stealthy and searching for pray. That would support stealthy gameplay even for PVE/casual pvp players, who would have reason to have some reveal ability and could do it solo, they could also train their combat on them. Also there could be pvp skill of tracking, but I don't know if that wouldn't be too much gamebreaking and possible to implement.
I guess others may think I'm crazy, like why even bother think about it.

Jaimeh · September 2021

It depends on the purpose of why I'm going in there in the first place (and I'm speaking mostly from the perspective of a pve-er): if it's with a group to flag districts or do the Molag Bal event in the sewers, it's always fun, even we wipe, because it's a 'we're all in it together' mentality. If I'm on my own and farming sewer bosses, especially near the enemy alliances, this is also fun for me, because it's a mini game of whether I can go and kill the boss before getting discovered. When pages where dropping from these bosses I did a lot of runs like that with my NB and in the quiet hours it's actually nice. If someone killed me then I'd just respawn and try again. The only case where it's decidedly unfun is when solo farming for leads from upstair bosses, because they take a lot of time to be killed and usually enemy players arrive in the meantime and kill you. I don't mind the killing part, as I don't go there to pvp and don't take it personally, but I do mind not being able to loot a boss that I killed or contributed to killing. Enemy players will literally camp the boss and kill you after you respawn and return to loot, and that's really frustrating, imo. That's the only aspect I object to, especially when the leads are tied to RNG and not guaranteed drops, so you have to go through that process repeatedly.

MentalxHammer · September 2021

As an end game PvP player IC and dueling are my favorite PvP formats. IC gives me the opportunity to 1vx without the lag of Cyro, while earning a reasonable PvP sourced income. Plus all the buildings and back alleys are great environmental factors to turn an outnumbered fight in your favor.