There are so many things you can do in PvP to give you an edge over the other player. Today I’m going to unveil some of the tricks that I utilize every day in Cyrodiil. These will be a mix of tactics and addons that help me excel in PvP.
Kill Counter
This is an addon for ESO that will keep track of your PvP prowess in Cyrodiil. This addon not only keeps track of your session stats but its keeps a log of everything from the time the addon was installed. It will track statistics such as AP Earned, Kills, Deaths, Killing Blows, Who you’ve killed the most, who’s killed you the most, and so much more. If you’re not using this addon I highly recommend getting it just so you can track your own progress. Everyone likes to know how well they are doing at something, self-validation, and this addon does that. It’ll allow you to see your weaknesses a lot easier than just looking at the simple Death Recap that is in the game. Right now for example, Sorcerers are my Most Dangerous class, so I know I need to up my resistances a bit more and increase my armour. So if you’re looking for an addon to help you become a better PvPer, this is it.
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Wykkyd’s Outfitters
Just like Kill Counter, this is also an addon, except it has a lot less utility and more quality of life potential. This one will allow you to set up gear “macros” so you can swap out gear based on which role you’ll be playing. I’ve recently been working on a Tank and DPS build for my Templar and because of that my inventory is packed full of armour and weapon pieces. Trying to remember which piece of gear was for which set can sometimes be confusing. But not anymore. Once you’ve equipped all your gear you can “save” and give it a name. Once you’ve saved it you’ll see it listed in a little dropdown style window with your other gear sets. Now you just need to select which gear set you want and click on Load. It’ll automatically switch your equipped gear to the correct ones for that set. This addon makes the game experience so much grander when you don’t have to bumble around in your inventory trying to find the right gear piece. One thing to note though, you can only switch your gear when you’re not in combat. You can’t be in a DPS gear set and middle of the fight switch out to be a tank or a healer. You have to wait until you’re out of combat to switch.
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Front Door Sieging
With the increase to siege damage versus players, this tactic doesn’t get used a lot anymore as players are afraid of dying. Don’t be scared. Dying is part of life, except if you do it right you do not have to die. The trick is, don’t use rams. Instead use the regular ballista. The ram requires six people to do full damage, those same six people can do more damage to the door if they each use two ballista. A fully leveled door has 195,000 HP whereas a fully leveled wall has 260,000 HP. The downside to the door is there are more NPCs, but NPCs aren’t hard to kill and down fast if you’re group is assisting one another. So as you can see, it’s a lot faster to break down a door and “burst” a keep via the door than it is a wall. Of course if there are many people inside the keep sieging a door isn’t recommended as it’s a much easier location to defend. The exception would be if your goal is to disrupt transport lines or try and distract the enemy. It’s a lot faster and easier to go through the door than it is a wall.
Also, one other thing to note. DO NOT USE FIRE BALLISTA, they do less damage on the door/wall. Plus if you’re using a fire ballista you can guarantee that someone in a Teamspeak/Ventrilo/Mumble is commenting on your blunder. I am a firm believer than fire ballista and fire trebuchets should do more damage to a door than a regular one as the door is made of wood.
Resource Capping
If you’re goal is to take the keep, ignore the resource. They offer no benefit, except as a fall back location should you need one. Resources offer great bonuses to the keeps they surrounded such as upgrading the walls or level of the guards and when you take them they will slowly degrade the keep making it easier to capture. When I say slowly, I mean slowly, it is about ~12 mins per level, or a total of one hour to bring that keep’s bonus to level 1. So as you can see, it’s not really worth taking a resource prior to taking a keep. Once the keep has been taken your first priority is to then take the resources. So many times I have seen groups of players leave the keep to go help elsewhere only to leave the resources uncapped. Then they wonder why they can’t transport to the keep. You need at least one resource to open transport.
Small Group Tactics
While this won’t make you the best PvPer it will offer you a much different PvP experience. Do not be afraid to leave the zerg. Some of the more exciting and epic battles come from smaller scrimmages. When the zerg is attacking a keep, take a smaller group to the opposite side of the keep and go into stealth. Kill all those who are running back to the keep. Word will get out that your group is doing this and the incoming groups will get larger and the fights will get better. This also helps you refine your rotation and character build as it really allows you to see how well you’re doing. Instead of 15 people hitting the same person, it’s now you and a few others. In one of the recent updates Zenimax added a new hour long Alliance Point gain buff. To get this buff you need to go complete a Cyrodiil delve. A lot more people are now going into these confined areas to get this buff and because of this it has begun to harbor a lot of smaller scale combat in close quarters offering players a much different PvP combat style.
Everyone has their own tactics and tricks they like to use and these are just some of mine. While they work for me they may not work for everyone. I’d like to hear what your tricks and tips are please let me know in the comments.
