PvP General Tips
The first and most important thing to point out about PvP in ESO is that it’s nearly a completely different game compared to PvE ESO. The overall playstyle is very different then PvE, especially the “DPS” role.
Difference Between the “Roles”
Most importantly there aren’t really any roles, at least not in the traditional sense.
- Tanks – There isn’t really a difference, you’re a tank you’re meant to soak up the damage. The only real difference is the “tank role” doesn’t really work in PvP since you can’t taunt. Tank builds in PvP are really only meme and/or troll builds to annoy players.
- Healers – There really is no difference with healers looking at it from a role perspective, your goal is to heal your group. The only difference is on the build, you need to keep your group alive as well as yourself. Since there is no tank to taunt enemies, you can and will be targeted by enemy players once they realize you’re the healer.
- DD – This is where things can get more complicated. So just looking at the “DD Role” from a role perspective, there isn’t too much that changes as your goal is to deal damage, it’s just in a different way. Of course your build will also change drastically. I will explain this more in detail.
Dealing Damage
- In PvE your goal as a DD is to get as much DPS (Damage per second) as possible over an extended period of time, in PvP it’s pretty much the opposite as your goal is to deal as much damage as possible in as little time as possible. This is what we call burst damage or a burst window.
- DD build differences – In PvE you will go all in on damage with skills, gear, mundas, etc. For PvP it’s a mix of survivability, damage, and sustain. Everyone has a different preference for how they balance it as PvP builds have a lot of personal preference and rely on personal playstyle (you will see me say this alot).
More In Depth Info About PvP Play.
(From/as a solo player point of view)
Survivability:
Each player prefers to survive in different ways, to some extent. Each build needs healing, overall “tanking” ability, speed, and sustain. It comes down to finding that balance that you prefer.
- Healing – No matter what you need at least 1 heal, even that is typically not enough. This comes down to personal preference, class, etc. but having at least 1 burst heal and 1 HoT is a very good option. If I’m able I like to have my Burst heal on my back bar while having my HoT on my front bar as this will allow me to keep my HoT up all the time much easier.
- Tankiness ability – This will depend on how you want to play, a brawler will typically want more resists and damage mitigation compared to a get in and out type of playstyle. With that being said it is a must to have a skill that will buff your resistances, DK’s Volatile Armour for example.
- Speed – Speed is king in PvP as it allows you to use LOS much easier than a slow character, the best way to survive in my opinion is to simply avoid damage. With that being said it will come down to personal preference on how you want to play.
- Sustain – Sustain is very important, if you don’t have resources you’re as good as dead, but if you have too much sustain then you’re probably not dealing enough damage, it’s important to find that balance that works for you. Don’t forget in PvP it is very important to be able to sustain both Mag and Stam as both pools are used.
- LOS – LOS stands for “Line of Sight’ this is a very important skill as it allows you to control the battle. The reason LOS is so important is it allows a player or small group to take on a bigger group or “zerg”. If you have the best PvP build ever made you will not be able to fight multiple people head on as they have the same access to gear, skills, etc. If you can learn how to use the terrain, keeps, towers, walls, objects, etc to your advantage you will be able to maneuver a group of players in such a way to where the fight is just a bunch of very short 1v1’s.
Burst Damage:
What is Burst Damage? – Burst damage is dealing as much damage as possible within minimal time, this will either kill a player or bring them into execute range for a quick finish.
How to do a burst combo? – It is different for each class, but follows the same concept of a “proc” damage ability, spammable and/or ult, and execute.
Each class’s typical combo:
StamNB – Shadowy Disguise, Heavy Attack, Incap Strike, Surprise attack, Execute at 33%.
- If Relentless Focus is at 5 Stacks then use this after Incap Strike.
(MagNB is typically a very similar combo)
- StamSorc – Proc Crystal Weapon, Dizzy Swing, Medium attack (partially charged heavy), Dawnbreaker, Execute.
- MagSorc – Haunting Curse, Light Attack, Crushing Shock, Ice Comet, Streak, Crystal frags if it will insta cast, Crushing shock.
(Your goal is to get Haunting curse and Ice comet to hit the second you stun the enemy with Streak) - StamPlar – Power of the Light, Light Attack, Jabs, Light attack, Javelin (to stun right before Power of the light procs), Jabs.
(MagPlar is the same except Toppling charged is used instead of Javelin)
- StamDen – Beetles, Birds of Prey to rush in, Heavy attack, Dawnbreaker, Execute (spin to win). (Your goal is to get Beetles and Dawnbreaker to hit at the exact same time.)
(MagDen is very similar, you will just use vamp spammable instead of spin to win)
- Stamcro – Blast bones, Dizzy Swing, Medium attack, Dawnbreaker, execute.
(Your goal is to get blast bones and the dawnbreaker to hit at the exact same time)
Magcro – Most common is the bomb set up rn which can be hard to pull off. Anyways the typical combo is; Blast Bones, Boneyard to proc dark convergence, Colossus to proc Balorgh, Graveyard synergy, AOE spammable from destro staff (either morph really).
(You want everything to hit super close together but can be hard to time correctly)