Elderscrolls Online PVP Guide & FAQBy ChiVashon

What is PvP in ESO?Player vs Player in PvP is done in its own private zone called Cyrodil. In Elder Scroll mythology, this is where the throne of the Emperor of Tamriel is. In this story, the Imperial City is taken over and ravaged by the Daedra loyal to Molag Bal. Three factions war against each other to claim Emperorship for their alliance. This is done by taking keeps in the name of your alliance. Once you have control of the six keeps that surround the Imperial City, the highest ranked member of your alliance is crowned Emperor.

How do I get involved?

Once you reach level 10, you can start entering Cyrodil. By pressing the default key ‘L’ it will bring up your PvP menu. On the top will be an option to list all the campaigns. Once you get the list, choose the proper campaign, right click it, and choose it as your home campaign. This home campaign is where you will be able to gain PvP ranks and alliance points. Pay attention to the forums as the home campaigns may change. You can also setup a guest campaign. This campaign you can join at your leisure, but you do not gain ranks here.

What are Alliance Points?

Alliance points Is a currency you obtain for participating in PvP. All PvP related activities reward you with alliance points. Kills, taking a resource or a keep, fixing a wall or a door of a keep, anything you do that is PvP related. You can use these points on purchasing siege equipment from vendors to use, and for larger sums you can purchase gear packs from vendors. There are some PvP specific set gear you can purchase in Cyrodil. All item purchases are random though. You purchase a bag which will have a random piece of gear.

This place is huge! How do I get around?

Each keep has what they call a transistus shrine. Your alliance main gates also have one. You can use this shrine to teleport to any keep your alliance owns. There are some conditions where you will not be able to teleport to an owned keep:• If the enemy has control over all of the keeps resources• If the keep is currently under siege.

*Note: Outposts have shrines as well, but you can only teleport to an Outpost. You can not teleport from an Outpost.

What happens when I die?

When you die in PvP you do not lose any durability. You cannot resurrect yourself with a soul gem either. However, another player can use a soul gem to resurrect you on the spot. Only Grand Soul gems work in Cyrodil. Even if your level 10 because your boosted to level 50 stats. You can buy empty grand soul gems from the Siege vendors in every keep.If you have no one around to resurrect you, then you can re-spawn at any keep your alliance owns, the main gates, or a Forward Base Camp. These keeps tend to be far away from the battlefield so you will be trekking back into the battle. That is the real consequence to dying is trying to get back. This is what makes Forward Base Camps valuable.

Soul Gems

Buy them! The siege vendors will sell empty soul gems. Only Grand Soul Gems work in Cyrodil. Be sure to take a few so you can assist in resurrecting people in your group. Remember, these gems are empty so you will have to fill them. You cannot fill them by killing enemy players or NPC mobs. You have to find some wildlife as you are traveling. Stay off the road and find some lions, or wolves and quickly fill a few before heading into the battle. I try to keep at least 10 on me at all times.

PvE in Cyrodil

Don’t forget PvE! If you get tired of the PvP grind you can go explore Cyrodil’s Pve content. There are towns with repeatable quests, personal dungeons with skyshards, and random encounters all over the place. Be warned though, enemies can also be found doing the same content. It is not unusual to be deep in a personal dungeon, turn around to leave and a group of enemies, who are also exploring, come in from behind you. Level equivalent gear will drop in dungeons and you can find set items in dungeons.

PvP Related Mods

• Kill Counter – This will track your individual kills/deaths/killstreaks/death streaks. It has options to keep an overall score and it can be reset when you enter Cyrodil. Only drawback is it records all of your deaths, even if you’re in PvE land, so you may have to reset it every so often.

• Cyrodil Alert – This will produce an on screen alert when a Resource/Keep/Outpost is under attack and when an objective is taken over and by whom. Great so you don’t have to constantly open your map to see where the fighting is. Drawback is when it states an objective is under attack, it very well could be under attack by your own alliance.

• Group Leader – Almost a MUST at this point until ZOS makes something better. This Mod will place the group leader separately on the map and on your compass, so you know which way to run to be with your group leader. Rumor has it that in the 1.1 patch, we will be able to better identify who the group leader is in game.

• Go to http://www.esoui.com/addons.php for your Mod needs. I suggest using a program called Minion to manage your apps. You can get Minion on this page as well.

PvP Tutorial

Don’t Skip the PVP Tutorial! When you first enter Cyrodil you will get a quest. It gives you two options, to talk to the general or another person. If you talk to the general that is you opting out of the tutorial. You get a free skill point, but it is recommended you follow your quest to a guy who will give you instructions on how to use siege weapons. If you complete the tutorial, its very quick, not only do you get the free skill point, you get a free limited forward base camp.

Are there benefits to participating in PvP?

Yes! Not only personal benefits, but alliance wide benefits.

Your alliance gains bonuses by controlling keeps and having control of up to 6 elder scrolls. These benefits extend even outside of Cyrodil while you PvE in dungeons or just questing. Here is a breakdown of the bonuses an alliance can attain when participating in PvP.

Controlling Keeps

When we take over keeps in Cyrodil, the alliance will gain bonuses. Each alliance has 6 home keeps then the 6 inner keeps around the Imperial City.

• Home Keep Bonus = Increases experience, alliance points, and gold gained from kills by 5%

• Enemy Keep Bonus 1 = Increases experience, alliance points, and gold gained from kills by 2 – You get this bonus when you hold at least 1 enemy keep. The bonuses get better as you take over more enemy keeps.

• Enemy Keep Bonus 2 = Increase Weapon and Spell Critical by 2%

• Enemy Keep Bonus 3 = Increases experience, alliance points, and gold gained from kills by 4%

• Enemy Keep Bonus 4 = Increase Weapon and Spell Critical by 4%

• Enemy Keep Bonus 5 = Increases experience, alliance points, and gold gained from kills by 6%

• Enemy Keep Bonus 6 = Increase Weapon and Spell Critical by 6%

• Enemy Keep Bonus 7 = Increases experience, alliance points, and gold gained from kills by 8%

• Enemy Keep Bonus 8 = Increase Weapon and Spell Critical by 8%

• Enemy Keep Bonus 9 = Increases experience, alliance points, and gold gained from kills by 10%

The Elder Scrolls

There are 6 Elder Scrolls that can be captured in Cyrodil. Each alliance starts off with 2 set in special temples behind gates that cannot be penetrated by siege. When an enemy alliance controls the keep that precedes these gates, then the gate opens allowing the enemy access to the Elder Scroll. To gain any benefits from the Elder Scrolls, your alliance must hold its original scrolls plus those of the enemy. Each scroll can be kept in a keep your alliance controls. For every Elder Scroll you control, your alliance gains additional bonuses.

• Defensive Elder Scroll 1 – Increases armor rating by 5%

• Defensive Elder Scroll 2 – Increases spell resistance by 5%

• Offensive Elder Scroll 1 – Increases Spell Power by 5%

• Offensive Elder Scroll 2 – Increases weapon power by 5%

Emperor!

The final alliance wide bonus comes when your alliance currently has an Emperor crowned:

Emperorship Bonus - +5 HP per level of your character

Along with alliance wide benefits, there are also some personal benefits as well.

• Free Gear – As you participate in PvP, you will be mailed random pieces of gear. The more you participate, the more that comes. If you’re behind in gear, this can be a great way to get something new before you hit the next dungeon. Now the gear is random, but I have received plenty of decent gear as I have played.

• Skill Points – in PvP you have a PvP grade. Every time you increase your grade, you get a skill point.

• Titles – when you increase your PvP grade you also gain a new title to represent your new rank.

• PvP Skill Lines – When you enter Cyrodil, you gain access to PvP based skills. These abilities are viable in PvE as well. Their abilities gain in strength the more you PvP. You have the Assault Line and the Support line. Each has 3 passives, 2 actives and 1 ultimate. If you do get the opportunity to be crowned the emperor, you gain an additional skill line of 5 passives. For more see http://esohead.com/calculator/skills

PvP Quests

Don’t forget your quests! After you do the tutorial, you will have the option to pick up 5 quests in your main city. These quests have specific objectives, though the objective will always be random, except the Kill player quest. All quests give you alliance points, experience and some gold. The capture quests in all honesty will not be completed as often due to the randomness. The kill quest is easy to do once a day and should be done once a day. Your capture quests can be shared. For example, if I happen to have Capture Alessia Keep quest and we have the opportunity to do it, I can share my quest with the group so we all can hand it in. This would require the rest of the group to abandon their Capture mission.The quests are as follows:

Capture an Elder Scroll

Given by the general, you will get a quest to capture an elder scroll. The particular scroll is given completely at random. While your quest may say capture the Scroll of Chim, another person may have something different. A lot of the times, your alliance may already own that particular scroll. If that’s the case, abandon it and take it again.

Scouting Mission

This mission will ask you to scout a resource. Basically you have to go to the resource on the map, get close enough to it to write a report (a message will pop up when you can) then you complete it. The resource location is completely random and it can be an enemy controlled resource.

Capture Resource

Simple enough, this quest completes when you participate in taking the listed resource. The quest will give you a very specific resource to capture. At times it may already be in your alliances possession. If so you can either keep it because the enemy can take it later down the line, or abandon it and hopefully get another one.

Capture Keep

This gives you a particular keep to capture. As with the capture resource quest, the keep is random and you could already own the keep.

Kill Player Quest

This quest has become a daily. It’s very simple, kill 20 enemies and hand it in. You get credit for kills while you are in a group so it’s easy to complete. Pick this up once a day and turn it in.

What skills are best for PvP?

The right skills may vary depending upon your own personal play style, but there are some abilities that can be considered more PvP oriented. Most players will want to use abilities that will lock down enemy, so they can not retaliate, and do a hefty amount of damage. Most of your combat in Cyrodil will also be group vs group, so AoE is also used a lot. First let’s talk about some of the different ways to lockdown your opponents.

Status Effects

These are some of your basic status effects you may want to concentrate on or what you will see in PvP. Other status effects do exists. Most of these effects you can counter by hitting your right mouse button then your left mouse button. Same move as if you were interrupting a mobs heavy attack. This will cost you about 30% of your stamina, but you can break the effect and have a very short immunity to that effect. You will see a swirling circle around you, which I believe is the indicator you are immune to crowd control, so if you see this on an enemy know you cannot lock them down until its gone.

• Blind – Raises chance for targets attacks to miss, Example Ability: Sparks (Dual Wield)

• Disorient - long disable. Cannot move/perform any action for duration or if damage is taken. Example Ability: Rune Prison (Sorcerer: Dark Magic)

• Knockdown – target is knocked down and unable to move or perform any actions for duration. Example Ability: Uppercut (Two Handed)

• Off Balance – short disable. This is when you interrupt a mobs heavy attack. Then you use your heavy attack and knock them down. You can set enemy players off balance with a few abilities. Example Ability: Blinding Fury (Dual Wield Flurry Morph)

• Immobilize – target is rooted but still able to use abilities and attack. Example Ability: Dark Talons (Dragonknight)

• Stun – target is unable to move, attack or perform any action. Example Ability: Surprise Attack (Nightblade Shadow)

• Snare – reduces targets movement speed. Example Ability: Arrow Spray (Bow)

Armor, Blocking and Dodging

It is important not to forget that you can block! You will take less damage and a stamina hit, but it may save you when you’re outnumbered. Many people forget they can block attacks and magic based attacks. You will take less damage and it may give you the moment you need to try and counter the enemy and reposition yourself on the battlefield. Dodging is another ability many forget about. Most who do a lot of PvP will dodge out of AoE circles and such but in PvP you can dodge out of some attacks that root you. Best example is the Dragon Knights Dark Talons ability. If you get rooted by this you can active your dodge and you will break right out of it. The default to dodge is to double tap in the direction you want to roll. This action does cause stamina.

Armor Actives

You cannot forget about your armor active abilities. Having these abilities can help save your life if the enemy gets the drop on you.

• Heavy Armor – ImmovableOne of the most common actives used on the

battlefield. This ability increases your armor and makes you immune to knockback and disabling effects for the duration. Morphed versions of this skill increase either the amount of damage you do or increases the duration of the ability.• Medium – Evasion

This ability will increase your dodge chance by 15%. Doesn’t sound like much, but the morphed version Shuffle will remove one snare per piece of medium armor you have equipped. Using this power to break out of a snare is better than using the mouse technique as you get free dodge from it! The additional dodge can help mitigate some damage when you’re surrounded, and you become semi translucent so you’re harder to see on the battlefield.• Light Armor – Annulment

Have you noticed the majority of your class abilities are spells? Annulment will help you absorb spell damage at 50%. Morphed versions also allow for mana regeneration when hit by spell damage or provide even tougher shield strength.

SneakingSneaking! Everyone can sneak! Not just Nightblades, everyone can and everyone does. It is common to see one lone enemy on the battlefield. You decide to go for the one on one fight, then his five hidden friends show up. You will get chased down by the enemy and you may need to run and hide yourself. Do not forget to sneak! It can save your life or give you the drop on your enemies. There are some ways to improve your sneaking ability and help you detect others who are sneaking around you:

• Medium ArmorIn the medium Armor tree there is

passive called “Improved Sneak”. This passive will decrease the detection radius by #% per piece of medium armor you have on you and reduce the cost of sneaking by 4% per piece. This means the enemy has to get a lot closet to you in order to find you and you can sneak longer!• Khajitts

The Khajitt has a passive known as stealthy which improves the stealth radius and increases damage done from Stealth• Magelight

This skill is found in the Mages Guild skill line. This ability will help detect those who are hiding. Good to have at least a few people in a group with this ability available.

What are siege weapons and how do they work?

Siege weapons come in some different varieties. Trebuchets are designed to attack keep walls. Ballistae are designed to take down other siege weapons. Catapults are designed to take down large numbers of troops.All siege weapons are used by slotting them in your quick slot menu bar. Once equipped you hit default key ‘Q’ and you will get the option to drop your siege. Now you cannot set siege down to close to other siege and in most cases no more than 20 pieces of siege can be dropped in one location.

Trebuchets

• Firepot – Drops flammable projectile on your enemies, curing down walls and setting enemies ablaze. Good for defending a keep. Set atop the wall and shoot it out amongst your enemies outside the walls, let them burn!• Ice ball – a frozen projectile which chills your enemies and slows them

down.• Stone launches a chunk of stone dealing massive damage to structures.

Best to take down enemy walls*Trebuchets have a long reload time compare to other siege. Everyone should have at least 2 stone trebuchets on them for keep assaults. The fire and ice trebuchets are usually best used in defense of a keep when the enemy is pooling outside your walls.

Ballistae

• Standard – launches stone at the enemy dealing solid damage. Can be used on structures or players, but best used against enemy siege.• Fire – launches a flaming bolt that burns walls and enemies• Lighting – launches a bolt of cracking lighting that ensnares enemies.

Less effective against walls.*Ballistae can be effective against players and enemy siege. I prefer using lightning Ballistae against enemy siege. Reason being is the bolt not only harms the siege, but it ensnares and damages the enemy player who is controlling the siege. Usually he will have to disengage the weapon and run or be killed. Then the siege lays on the battlefield useless.

Catapults• Meat bag – throws a diseased bag of meat in place of a stone dealing

damage over time to enemies.• Oil – launches jars of oil ensnaring targets as it hits• Scattershot – launches many small projectiles instead of one large one

dealing damage over a large area.*Catapults have less range then a Ballistae or Trebuchets but there damage output is greater. Best used against direct enemy players. The Meat bag is preferred use as the DOT they produce seems to work very well.

Battering Rams

These are used to take down keep doors. You can have up to 6 friendly players standing beside it to cause more damage to the door. Postern doors on the sides of keeps can not be taken down with a battering ram. Postern doors do not have there own hit points, they are considered walls.

Boiling Oil

Most keeps and defensible locations have grates near the doors or spots close to the edge of doors where you can dump oil down on your enemies. Just position the oil pot near the edge of the keep wall, and pour.

Forward Base Camps

These are re-spawn points you can drop closer to your objective. They are expensive but useful if you die in combat and do not want to run back from another keep. Enemies can destroy them and they are used up after 20 people have spawned.

Siege Weapon Tips

Always carry at least 2 Stone Trebuchets, 2 Fire or Lightning Ballistae and 2-3 Meatbag Catapults. When defending a keep sometimes it’s easier to kill the siege weapons user then the actual siege itself. Fire Ballistae will hurt the weapon and its user. The meatbag is best against enemy troops thus far putting a nice DoT on them. When the enemy is amassing outside your keep walls, rain meat upon them!If you can afford to, keep a Forward Base Camp if its needed in the field.

What are resources?

Around each keep are 3 resources. A mine, a farm, and a lumber mill. Each of these resources helps boost the keep that it surrounds. The mine will help keep walls repair over time and boost their strength. The Farm bolsters the keeps NPC defenders and the Lumber Mill bolsters and auto repairs keep doors. The longer your alliance holds the resources the stronger the keep is.

How do I take a keep or a resource?

Resources, keeps and outposts are taken by capturing flags that are protected by powerful NPC’s as well as any defending enemy players. Enemy players can also be present along side the NPC’s to help defend the objective. There are some tactics to be aware of when trying to take any of these objectives.

Taking Resources

Each resource has 1 flag out in the open protected by NPC’s. Usually it its two casters and two warriors at the flag. Near the flag at each resource is a small keep. At the top of this keep is a mage who is also very powerful. The object is to kill the NPC’s around the flag. Then when you’re standing at the flag it will slowly change sides to your alliance. Once it flips the NPC’s will re-spawn and protect it in the name of your alliance.It is recommended to try and take out the tower mage from range first as he does a lot of damage. If you have a large group you can usually rush the Flagg, take out the casters first or any NPC’s with the listing as Mender as they heal. Use of siege on the NPC’s is viable to weaken them.

Taking Outposts

There are three outposts in the game. Each alliance starts out with one. These outposts have walls and a main door that needs to be sieged in order to take it over. Inside are two flags that need to be taken to own the keep.Every outpost has two postern side doors and the main door. Every wall can be sieged. You will see the walls have hit points and will start to crumble as you start to take them down. The front door can be taken down as well with a battering ram. Now outposts are very defensible. Enemy players can rain down oil if you try and take the door, as well as numerous NPC guards outside the gate and inside the outpost itself.Once you breach the wall or the door, you must take both flags inside then the outpost is yours. Once it flips, a siege vendor will appear. Any damage you did to the outpost must be repaired. You can purchase keep and door repair kits. Note, siege does not seem to work as well on Outpost and Keep guards like they do with Resource guards.

Taking Keeps

All keeps have an outer wall then an inner keep. The outer wall has one main gate and two poster gates. Just like outposts, any wall can be sieged or the main gate can be taken down. Once the outer wall is breached, you then must breach the inner keep. These inner keeps are just like outposts. Once you breach the wall you need to take two flags. NPC guards roam the roads outside the keep, as well as many are inside the keep as well.When part of a siege you need to stay with the group. It is very easy to be picked off by an NPC guard or a player waiting for a stragglers. With so many on the battlefield it can get confusing. Listen to your raid leaders and move as one single unit trying to concentrate on one target at a time.

Types of NPC Guards

• Menders – They act as healers and boost other guards. They take on a Templar type of role. If the mob reads Mender, these should be targeted first.• Honor Guards – These are your

warriors. They take on a Dragon Knight template having abilities to reduce damage they take. Usually always with a sword and a shield. They are found at Resource capture points (Flags) and in Keeps

• Mages – very powerful NPC. They follow the Sorcerer Class and are usually positioned at a distance from conflicts. At resource locations, they are found at the top of the tower and can rain down AoE spells. Very powerful and I usually have them killed before menders due to the amount of damage they do. In keeps they are found atop the walls next to the main gate, as well as in the upper ramparts at the four corners and protecting the flag.

• Guards –Guards are the basic template for a standard NPC in a keep. They are Honor Guards with less power and are found inside and outside of the keeps

• Archers – Will be introduced in the 1.1 patch. Archer’s will be on Keep walls to allow for some ranged defense.

Tips for taking over a Resource

Before you take the Keep, you will want to take over all three resources. Once you have all of the resources in your possession, this stops the enemy from being able to use the transistus shrine. This is good because then the enemy cant teleport to the keep, he will have to run if they want to come defend. An enemy can still resurrect at the keep though even if the resources are taken.

A well organized group of 5 can take a keep if needed. Usually a group of at least 10 is preferred. For smaller groups you can have one Lightning Ballistae and one Meatbag Catapult ready. The lightning ballistae will help disrupt enemy casting and the Meatbags put dots on the mobs.

Tips for taking over a Resource Continued

The first target should be the Mage at the top of the tower. He has the capability to wipe out your whole group. You will need some range. Siege is not recommended. Kill the mage at range, setup your Meatbag and ballistae and full on attack. The flag will have two honor guard and two menders. Kill the menders first, then the guard. Once this is done, stand by the flag until it flips. Eventually the mobs will flip as well and be part of the pact.

If you have a larger force, still take out the tower mage first, then rush the center mobs. Siege is not needed.

Tips for taking over an Outpost

There are three outposts in the center ring. These outposts serve as a connector for transistus shrine usage. These are great to take over to cut off enemy movements.The Outpost has three doors, the main gate, and the western and eastern postern door. Inside of the outpost are two flags protected by NPC guards.If plausible the fastest way to take an Outpost is going right through the front door. If the enemy is not alerted to your attack, you can take an outpost with 10-15 people if well-coordinated. Usually you may need close to 20 or more players, especially if the opposing alliance is there to defend.First you need to clear the mobs guarding the front door. Some menders and guards. Once this is done, Stone Trebuchets should be setup to aim at the door, and a battering ram. Battering rams will get you through a door quickly, but they are vulnerable to Oil. The enemy has many places in an outpost to drop hot oil down through grates in the ceiling or over the sides of the castle. You can be killed in a matter of seconds. Best defense for this is the Siege Shield.

Tips for taking over an Outpost Continued

The Siege Shield is ab ability in the Alliance War Support Skill line. This reduces the damage you take from ranged and siege weapons. You will still get hurt, but may survive. Having a healer here with the siege bubble works great. If getting through the front door becomes to much of a chore, you can attack the western wall, eastern wall, or even the rear of the outpost if its exposed. Stone Trebuchets work the best on the walls. It will take you longer, but once the wall is down, or the door, you need to take over two flags on the inside. Just like resources, you will have two Honor Guard and Two Menders, or Mages. Kill the menders/mages first, then the guards, take the flags and wait for the post to flip.Once the outpost is in your possession, you will have to repair the damage you have done. A Siege vendor will spawn and you can purchase door and wall repair kits. Repair the damage you have done and this completes your assault.

Tips for taking over a Keep

Assaulting a keep is very similar to assaulting an outpost. You have to get through two lines of defense. The outer keep walls, then the inner keep walls. The outer keep has a main door, and two postern doors. Any wall or postern door can be attacked. The main gate again is usually the easiest way in, but if you so choose your army can decide to siege another wall. Stone trebuchets are the best suited for siege against walls. If you got the jump on the enemy, using the battering ram may prove useful on the main gate.

NPC mobs will wander the roads outside of the keep. Be sure to kill these mobs. They can re-spawn quickly.

Once you breech the outer wall, you have to clear the courtyard. It is important to stay as a group here and help target the same mobs as your party members. Clear the courtyard in front of the inner keep, then clear the ramparts of all the NPC’s and enemy players. Now you must siege the inner keep.

The inner keep is basically the same size and makeup as an Outpost. You can setup siege on the ramparts and in the courtyard. Usually you go through the front door. Setting up catapults high up in the ramparts is suggested to kill enemy players on top of the inner keep to prevent them from dropping oil down on your battering ram.

Tips for taking over a Keep Continued

As you breech the inner keep, same rules apply as in the Outpost. The only exception is there are usually 4 mages that surround the transistus shrine. Usually this shrine is either right near the main gate or in the back. Taking out these 4 mages is crucial as they hurt.

Enemies have the ability to setup oil pots on the inside of the inner keep as well. Be prepared for this as some sieges have been stopped because the army dies under the force of the falling oil and the NPC mobs.

Once you take both flags, the castle will flip to your alliance, then it is yours. Once again you must repair the damage you have done to prevent the enemy from retaking it.

Hey, I can claim a keep or a resource?

Yes you can! Once a keep or a resource has been taken by your alliance, guilds can claim the location for the guild. What this does is it allows your guild store to be accessible by the public. This is how the market works in ESO, so it can be prudent for you merchants to help defend claimed Keeps if you want your wares sold on the open market!