I used to be in Cyrodiil every day, and I’ve noticed that most of my pvp friends have either stopped playing or stay strictly in IC and BGs just to experience the “normal” way of playing. Many PvP players, like myself, used to enjoy the game’s diverse and evolving nature. While this new campaign might seem fun initially, over time it feels increasingly monotonous.

It seems to undermine what many of us love about MMOs: the ability to theorycraft, switch between radically different builds, experiment with a variety of new skills, and learning different roles. In the past, if I became tired of playing one class, I could easily switch from a magicka build to a stamina-based variation, experiment with the new scribing system, and experience an entirely different playstyle. Now, with only a few preset skills available, that freedom feels severely restricted.

I won’t delve too deeply into the significant class imbalances (with some classes almost unplayable due to negligible damage), as I understand this is just a test phase. My main concern is with the overall concept of the campaign.

Additionally, regarding scribing and PvE content: What incentive will PvP players have to participate in trials, arenas, or gear farming if these rewards won’t even be usable in Cyrodiil? I even purchased the Gold Road chapter specifically to enjoy scribing in PvP, only to have that opportunity removed for now. As a PvP main player, I regularly pay for ESO+ to access features like the craft bag and all DLC content, which I use to test and refine my builds. If Cyrodiil is going to be locked only into this restrictive format permanently, it diminishes the value of these investments.

Cyrodiil used to be a rewarding challenge for those willing to study the game; every build had its own weaknesses, and no “unkillable” build existed. Of course, for experienced players it’s still possible to perform well under the new campaign, but it feels like PvP has become much less interesting, diverse, and entertaining. We simply don’t have any incentive to theorycraft as we once did.

Will there be a Golden Vendor this evening? @ZOS_Kevin

The fact that we only have one self-regenerating potion and unlimited siege engines that can only be used one at a time is just BRILLIANT.

We can focus on the fight itself without worrying about inventory, food or drink issues, it's enjoyable gameplay

Everything seems very fluid and the new class skills are particularly well-suited, I have hardly noticed any bugs

This campaign should continue, perhaps with some adjustments, but clearly I hope that a campaign of this type will see the light of day.

the only problem : too zergy
even as a solo player I find myself in a zerg despite myself, even trying to avoid it, it's almost impossible to stay alone, really too many people, and concerning the enemies I don't even talk about it.

the 2 most fun thing in vengeance campaign are big fight with no lag and also no rush of agony bomber this is what eso need! more fun fight . the down side now is the combat was too minimalist no weapon skill etc...

Welp, my game crashed while I was running across the Allesia bridge.

I believe this is the place to share our thoughts on the test camp, so I wanted to give my own feedback.

LIKES:

No Lag!
I usually play ESO on GeForce Now, so my experience with lag isn’t too bad. However, there have been plenty of times when everyone around me crashed leaving me and a few others there to be trampled lol. The fact that we have literally had 50+ people per faction in this test and there’s no lag or crashing is astonishing. I love it!

The Combat Bug Is Finally Fixed! Praise Vivec!
I’ll admit, I’m going to miss being able to back out of a fight to swap my skills, since the ones I use to defend a keep aren’t the same as the ones I use for solo fights. Also, being able to mount immediately after combat instead of having to walk or run to my next location is fantastic. I really hope ZOS implements this change in the normal camp because combat bug is so annoying.

Surprisingly Good Skills
At first, I wasn’t thrilled about the skill changes, especially for my Sorc, since I typically mix Sorc, Mage, and Assault skills rather than relying solely on class skills. But after giving it a real shot, I had an absolute blast. Two skills that stood out were the pet abilities. Just before this test, I was talking in zone chat about how frustrating it is to have to double bar pets just to use them (especially since they aren’t even that great in pvp). But with these changes, pet skills are superb! Now that they aren’t physical pets, I can slot them on either bar without worrying about losing them when I switch bars, and they won’t die mid battle. I also don’t have to deal with that annoying bird blocking my line of sight anymore (which is another reason why I stopped using her for heals).

Despite the skill restrictions, I’ve been able to hold my own in 1v1s and zerg fights on every class I’ve played. I tested my Sorc, Arc, Temp, and NB, and I had fun on all of them. Whoever worked on the skills part, great job!

The Massive Population!
While I love my solo fights, I’m also a huge fan of the war aspect of Cyrodiil. That’s what got me hooked on pvp in the first place. Back when I was a newbie pver, my guild used to run cyro on weekends, and I absolutely loved storming enemy keeps, taking land, and capturing scrolls. Seeing so many more players involved in these big faction-vs-faction fights has been epic. I’ve never seen pvp this populated, and honestly, I’m going to miss it. It’s going to feel so dead when we go back to gh lol.

A More Inclusive PvP Experience
One of the best things about this test is that everyone has the same stats. PvE players can now jump in without worrying about being at a huge disadvantage against normal pvpers. I’ve had so many pve players tell me how much they’re enjoying this, which is great for the game as a whole.

The Visuals Are So Stinking Cute!
I’m a huge fan of the Apocrypha zone, so much so that I’m building a home inspired by it. When I saw the theme for this Vengeance test camp, I was ecstatic. ZOS should absolutely do this more often, changing the sky and aesthetics in PvP now and then.

DISLIKES:

The Speed Is Painfully Slow
As much as I love the lack of combat bug and the ability to mount immediately, the slow movement speed is rough. I didn’t like having to ride everywhere, especially since port stones were removed. That wouldn’t be such a big deal though if we weren’t so freaking slow. There were times I didn’t even bother heading to a keep to help defend because I was too far away and wouldn’t make it in time. This is definitely a negative for me.

Missing Port Stones & Siege Variety
Speaking of port stones, I didn't like not having all our siege available. In addition to the stones, I was really missing my meatbags. I have always loved finding the best spots to siege when defending or taking a keep and meatbags are my main go to. So not having them really sucked, but I didn't mind too much because it forced us to fight each other more rather than rely on siege to win the battle. So it's a little bittersweet, I doubt I will ever see any fvf fighting in cyro like I did during this camp and that is truly a shame.

No Alliance Skills
Even though I ended up enjoying the adjusted class skills, I think a few more skills could have been included, especially the cyro ones. Still, I really don't mind only utilizing class skills. I felt like this test really showed who is a capable fighter and who relied on sets to snag a win. I had some incredible fights and was thoroughly impressed by some of the players I faced.

Final Thoughts:
I know this was primarily a stress test rather than a test for a potential new campaign, but I genuinely think ZOS should keep this in some form. I’ve discussed it with others in zone chat, and we all agree that this would make a fantastic Midyear Mayhem campaign.

At first, I thought it could replace some of the dead, empty campaigns (like No CP), but I’ve changed my mind. While this test has been fun, I think people would eventually get bored and return to GH or BR, leaving this campaign just as empty as the others. However, if ZOS used this format exclusively for MYM, it could enhance the event in several ways:

1. More people would participate in MYM, which is never a bad thing—especially now that we’ve seen the servers can handle it.
2. PvE players would feel confident jumping into pvp since everyone has the same stats.
3. No more ball groups or bomb groups ruining the fun! (Okay, bombers aren’t that bad, but it was nice being able to stand on a flag without fear of getting bombed lol.)

Alright, I just realized I wrote a novella, so I’ll wrap this up. I loved this test camp, and I’m really going to miss it when it’s gone. Also LOL to the ballgroups who tried to be a ballgroup during this test.

Overall experience & feedback:

@ZOS_Kevin Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you
MANY of us quiet majority have been HOPING for this for YEARS. And you all are really delivering here! Please. Please do not make the same mistake of the past and listen ONLY to the naysayers who post in forums! Talk to people individually! Log in and whisper folks who are actively IN the campaign at random!

I cannot say this enough - I have not had this much fun in cyro in at LEAST 8-9 years! Please pass along to your whole team: this little test has gone SUCH a long way in regenerating some long-lost faith in ZOS that maybe... just maybe "they" are actually paying attention to our woes finally!

That said, here we go:
I do realize many things are missing and I HOPE HOPE HOPE you continue this campaign while SLOWLY, methodically re-introducing more things.

Results from current:
I did crash three times during the ~5 days & easily 20+ hours played. Hard crash, lockup and after killing the 'not responding' app, launcher had a message like "last attempt to launch game failed" even though I had not clicked launch... this error likely appeared during crash though I have no idea when because I rarely tab-out and did not notice when it appeared.

99.99% of the time ZERO player perceived lag. Abilities fired when I pushed the button. Bar swapped when I pushed the button. Got out of combat precisely 6 seconds after without ANY variance all week.

What I think it does need / needs next:
Recommend implementing weapon skill passives. Right now, there's no reason to run ANY weapon other than lightning staff.

NEED to increase healing AOE cap to at least 5 targets. Healing feels very ineffective with only 3 target cap. Personally, I feel like damage AOE cap shouldn't even be a thing but I realize that's a server load argument.

Next up, I would recommend skill morphs. Stam abilities severely lacking and likely a major source of negativity about the current. Some classes really need those morphs for people to enjoy.

REMOVE heal stacking! Each player should only be allowed one copy of each HoT. Any recast of that HoT from any other player should refresh the timer. This will go a long way and have layered, positive effects on (a)server load and (b)average playerbase. The only players it will really affect are those who run in regular groups of 3 or more... and those players will find plenty of ways to stay strong even with this change.

Weapon skills themselves should only be implemented *IFF* you limit HoT stacks, due to Resto staff line.

I would also recommend implementing set bonuses LAST and very... very carefully. I expect they are the most complex set of variables, requiring the most complex collection of calculations.



That's my ... TEN cents really.

All in all, I LOVE this version of Cyro. And I thank you SO MUCH for doing this! I really REALLY hope you're not just listening to the screaming negativity from people who are just angry they can't run their overpowered, make-me-unkillable builds.

I'd personally rather play a limited version of cyrodiil that DOES NOT lag than one that lags, crashes, fails to fire skills / bar swaps / get you out of combat all day.
Let's keep a functional cyro first and build back slowly, methodically to a fully fleshed out cyro.

And I crashed again during a large battle when I was on a kill streak...not happy! Was kicked out of campaign and had to rejoin queue.

The Cyrodiil Champions test has been an absolute blast. I hope you can at least keep an expanded version as a campaign option going forward. It wouldn't bother me a bit if it became the only option. Trying to keep up with the gear grind for both PvE and PvP is exhausting. I also hope you can do something similar for Imperial City. I'm dreaming of a future ESO where ZOS isn't under constant pressure to balance PvP and PvE.

ZOS_Kevin, I am a very sad man at the moment, Vengeance is almost over. I have had a blast the last week zerging all other Cyrodiil. The level playing field was great, and I enjoyed being able to compete and not being crushed like an ant. These large marauding armies must have been what the devs dreamt about when they launched ESO way back when. I am a PVE questor by nature but I have been addicted to PVP in this form over this last week, a thumbs up from me.

On reflection the game has run seamlessly 98% of the time. For me, when there has been a large number of players in one area there has been a slight, but noticeable drop in performance. I have also crashed out of the game on two occasions, but then I have put in a lot of hours in Vengeance. This is not a criticism but just an observation on my part. Otherwise I feel everything else worked out just fine. As with class skills, I have only player on a MagSorc and a Stam DK, so I really can't comment on that aspect. With all my thanks.

Well, despite all its problems, it was AWESOME, thanks for doing this, and I will miss it.

Yes it needs work and could be frustrating, but it was after all things considered, a true MMO experience, which was really cool.

I would make a ingame feedback about the campaign. So you will get more FB from players to get sure you will get fb give a reward for it.

Me personal im glad that this is over, this campaign was only about numbers. Bigger zerg won. i was still able to X players and in Small scale we still could handle a group with kiting.

For me it was to slow and you saw that the classes unbalanced. (i know that was not about)

Hope you got the data you needed and make the best of it and let us all know what is next.

I really thought I was going to hate this campaign, but it was actually fun.

I think the main reason was the template system so there were no godlike builds. The lack of impossible to kill players or bomber builds made this a lot more enjoyable to play.

As a down side you lose the ability (and theory crafting) to make cyrodil pvp builds, mixing skills and gear that you acquired for the single purpose of these builds.
In my opinion, removing this altogether feels like a step in the wrong direction.

I can see this being used as a starter campaign for new players (replacing the under lvl 50 campaign), or even casual pvpers.

More complexity should be added to the template system with new skills and maybe a way of differentiating roles so that a player can excel at being a healer, dps or a tank.

Dropping in to leave my conclusion to the Vengeance Cyrodiil Champions Testing Campaign.

Amazing. Loved it! Never had any issues with my characters leaving and entering into Cyrodiil to start. Being able to mount up seconds after a PVP confrontation/combat was great! Big revelation about Combat Bug being found through these settings and passes to the combat skills is valuable information. With regards to the combat and skills, I loved that each class had a passable amount of class identity, damage and survivability - though that being said I can't wait to see a mode like this where Weapon Skills and Alliance War abilities are available (Armor and Race passives further add to character sheets and calculations but it would be nice). The lack of lag in decently sized battles was great but it indeed started to chug with lag if 300-400 players were around wreaking havoc on the battlefield. The moment to moment combat felt great to me. 1v1s felt skill-based and meaningful to me (not everyone thinks so) and it was refreshing to be able to play the game knowing confirmed attacks or blocked attacks, heavy attacks, dodges and other combat mechanics (even crouch stealth!) were fully represented and meaningful. In other words, it was extremely refreshing knowing that the builds weren't just Rallying Cry, Wretched Vitality, Mechanical Acuity, Vicious Death/Plaguebreak bomb or any usual proc nonsense that takes the heavy lifting out of combat and veers towards a less interactive PVP experience. Complaints I heard was that people didn't like their build diversity disappearing in Vengeance but the truth is realistic build options in current PVP aren't viable anyways. I would rather fight against players who have every chance to win as I do as opposed to fighting someone who has Rallying Cry (which I also must use or be rendered useless in PVP altogether).

Vengeance Cyrodiil has peeled back the layer of metas and powercreep that has casted long shadows upon the scene of current PVP in Elder Scrolls Online. I was having FUN again in Cyrodiil for the first time in years! I was participating in Cyrodiil PVP since likely 2016. The wonder and thrill of what happens next around the next hill or battlement returned to me for a week. I tested out all the classes and felt IDENTITY, POTENTIAL and despite zone chat complaining about each class (Dragonknight being the most underpowered/Nightblade cloak being overpowered in Vengeance), each one had something to contribute. Dragonknight was still the best at holding the line and locking enemy players down in melee range. Each class had melee and ranged options as well! Oh, and nobody was an unkillable heal-tank. This is vitally important to indicate - damage was special and even moreso knowledge of what is and isn't dodgeable went miles for my experience. This felt like SKILLFUL and COMPETITIVE PVP for the first time in a long time. Content creator or new player - nobody is safe in Vengeance. Play well, coordinate and call your friends. Cyrodiil finally felt like a war. It reminded me of Planetside 2 finally and I say that as a huge compliment. High medieval castle sieges where each player is a soldier with a chance for greatness, not an overpowered legend who can solo/devalue 10-15 other players experiences just because they stood too close together lol

What else can I say? I had fun. Everything worked as I expected it to and some things were truly better than live despite BEING A TEST! Give me that Bolstering Darkness into live - I want to benefit from my ultimate along with my groupmates when I activate ultimates. We can finally look into the piece-by-piece structure of PVP and see where performance issues are stemming from and work it back up from there. From what it looks like, much of the functionality doesn't have to be lost, either.

Thank you ZOS for this chance to be a part of something bigger in improving one of my favorite games. I was skeptical and I want to stress that again - I was VERY skeptical about this test and about the road into the future of PVP. So to speak, for me the Road was not very Gold... until now! I am loving the direction of PVP and I hope this improves other aspects of the game as well. Find a balance between giving the players that ESO role-play of collecting and using our favorite sets, armors, weapons, skills and customizations but begin to make these things function in a more performant way. Big kudos to this project! I'll be here testing and giving feedback and participating in all things PVP from here on. Keep it coming!

I enjoyed it if anything for the novelty. I was so happy to not be one shot and really enjoyed the more realistic balanced battles. What I didn't enjoy was there was a lot more limit in strategy and tactics except for going back to some old strategies and tactics from 10 years ago and modifying them to the limitations of vengeance. I feel as if the more complex amount of circumstances and strategies is more satisfying however not if it's going to compromise the basic gameplay.

I still think there should be a no CP server, or something like it. I think it's popularity is lower simply because the obsessed players all want to play in the CP server and even wrangle the lower CP point players and newer player friends into playing with them in that server even when they're at a serious disadvantage. So I think encouraging people of all levels into that server somehow is what's key. Having two servers for PVP makes sense but you want to try to mitigate everyone wanting to play on one or the other. Perhaps some incentive for more vet players to play on the No CP server. Or perhaps both should be no or limited CP.

That said, if they're only going to make one server this is my thoughts from the vengeance experience:

I still think ESO devs should limit addons or get rid of them all together in Cyrodill. That said they should add things like "action duration reminder" and minimap etc things that lots of people want or use should just be added to citadel when you get there. These are options that should have been part of the game from the get-go.

I think the special abilities/effects of sets/weapons should be also neutralized. Maybe even their level such as gold or purple.

I think there should be a new line of alliance war abilities that mimic the sets that allowed for tactics and strategies against things like overwhelming numbers, ball zergs and op tanks. Like instead of vicious death. Have a buff with a timer like say 6 seconds that does the same thing if you kill a player well this buff is activated. Examples like that to make up for sets that are really useful for helping balance the playing field and allow for more tactics and strategy and various kinds of players working together with diverse roles instead of just a ball zerg.

I think allowing things like werewolf/vampire and weapon abilities is key for customization and fun.

I think it's kind of good that people were limited in how much siege they could use at once. And perhaps make them less alliance points, not free but less so people use them more freely, especially that are new to pvp. I still like having more variety and siege but maybe cold fire is just a little too much. Perhaps.

So in conclusion a server like vengeance but with access to all of your different kinds of abilities and a new five ability set for Cyrodill that can only be used in Cyrodill that wisely uses the alliance war sets as actual abilities/buffs etc. I like the idea of having two servers but I think they both should be encouraging enough to not have an empty server but also encourage players who are under a thousand CP to play in PvP.