What am I doing wrong? (PvP)

YexaC

 I've played a few hundred hours of PvP in SWTOR and thought that could be broken at times, but ESO so far takes the cake.

So basically I decided to try ESO out with a friend I used to PvP in SWTOR with and we got to around lv 42 and decided to try out Cyrodiil. We joined the non-vet instance for cyrodiil and in about an hour of joining skirmishes noticed we couldn't do any damage to virtually every one, especially when compared to the damage we'd take. So the question, is there some kind of PvP skill or PvP gear you need to purchase to be on par with everyone? 

I tried again today on my lv 31 Stamina Nightblade with a proper build for PvP and simply used my bow from the top of a keep that was being seiged. My heavy attacks would only crit for 1,500 damage and my abilities like poison arrow would only crit for around 950. On the other hand when someone would focus me using the same abilities it would do 3,500-6,000 damage every time despite their level.

I really feel like there's something I'm missing. I know you can buy gear with AP from shops, but can't find any info on whether or not that gear boosts your PvP damage/resistances. It's literally impossible to kill anyone solo. Even if I open on them with the most efficient burst rotations I can find, but whenever I get ganked I die in 3-4 hits literally. 

filmoret

I'm not sure exactly but your level and gear are all set.  So a lvl 30 guy has the same stats as a level 49 guy.  Now the gear is determined by what you are wearing.  If you are using medium armor then it will act like you are equipped with v14 gear of that same.  I assume you are using crafted armor and wearing sets of armor.  Heavy attack and poison arrow don't do much damage unless specd for them.  Snipe should be doing 3.5k damage and heavy attacks on certain builds can do that but not every build.

filmoret

Oh I almost forgot.  Impen and Reinforced are your friend.  At one time it was better to go full reinforced but now I think Impen is the way to go.  Gotta test it to find out.

YexaC

filmoret said:

I'm not sure exactly but your level and gear are all set.  So a lvl 30 guy has the same stats as a level 49 guy.  Now the gear is determined by what you are wearing.  If you are using medium armor then it will act like you are equipped with v14 gear of that same.  I assume you are using crafted armor and wearing sets of armor.  Heavy attack and poison arrow don't do much damage unless specd for them.  Snipe should be doing 3.5k damage and heavy attacks on certain builds can do that but not every build.

Well I've tried way more on my Templar and using Purifying Light > Structured Entropy > Dark Flare spam and Radiant Oppression when they're low still nets shit results. I rarely even hit 3k crits on anyone and take 4k+ damage from most abilities that hit me. I took 13k damage from a Sorc shard once and 10k+ from that ability multiple times. I have 15.2k health, not sure if that's normal or not. 

For NB melee I use 2h. I noticed peoples wrecking blows would kill me consistently in 3 hits. People seem to spam this ability, so I tried doing that and couldn't even top 2k damage with it.

filmoret

Impen trait on armor will drop their damage drastically.  Templar spelldamage is bad and always has been.  You want to use radiant destruction and maybe that flying spear skill but that won't do much damage.  Dark flare just don't do damage.  Reflective light is what I used.   Now the Templar needs full set of light armor to deal damage but he dies easy when he does that.  Stack spell damage.  The NB always keep momentum up from 2h skill line.  You can use snipe after buffed from momentum and it will hit hard.  You will also want your weapons to be armor penetration traits.  NB will want to wear full set of medium armor impen.  Full set of hundings rage.

HellboundHeart

YexaC said:

filmoret said:

I'm not sure exactly but your level and gear are all set.  So a lvl 30 guy has the same stats as a level 49 guy.  Now the gear is determined by what you are wearing.  If you are using medium armor then it will act like you are equipped with v14 gear of that same.  I assume you are using crafted armor and wearing sets of armor.  Heavy attack and poison arrow don't do much damage unless specd for them.  Snipe should be doing 3.5k damage and heavy attacks on certain builds can do that but not every build.

Well I've tried way more on my Templar and using Purifying Light > Structured Entropy > Dark Flare spam and Radiant Oppression when they're low still nets shit results. I rarely even hit 3k crits on anyone and take 4k+ damage from most abilities that hit me. I took 13k damage from a Sorc shard once and 10k+ from that ability multiple times. I have 15.2k health, not sure if that's normal or not. 

For NB melee I use 2h. I noticed peoples wrecking blows would kill me consistently in 3 hits. People seem to spam this ability, so I tried doing that and couldn't even top 2k damage with it.

Don't forget, other enemy players do use there buffs and can cast debuffs as well. These are REAL players you're fighting. Not NPC's with set rotations. I have had no issue so far. And as the user said above, everybody is synched so, everybody is kind of equal. Gear matters too.

DAS1337

I guess the question is, what are you using for gear?  What kind of traits do they have?  What is your stat distribution?  Are you attacking the right targets?  Meaning, are you trying to take out healers and mages with light armor, or are you wasting your damage on a tank?  Are you using food/drink?  Mundus stones?  I find it hard to believe that everyone, no matter their level or gear set, is hitting you harder than you hit them, if you are geared out correctly.  Plus, you'll never have the same skills that someone 10 levels above you may have, even if you are scaled up to a level playing field. 

Iselin

Stick around for a week or two... join a PVP guild... use teamspeak and ask those who have been around for a while and performing well what gear and skills you should be using.

The game has been around for nearly two years so yeah, players have done their research and know the build and armor sets to use.

For example... you say you're using bows? You want to use The Warrior for your mundus stone for increased weapon power. You want to have all medium armor with 5 pieces of it being Hunding's Rage for increased weapon power and the other 3 pieces (2 armor + one weapon) being something like Night Mother's for even more weapon damage and critical - both of those are crafted sets... you also want to have some ability to increase your weapon damage by 20% by using an ability that buffs you for that (using a 2HD weapon for your second and using Rally will do just that and also heal you - it's probably the most popular +20% choice but there are others.)

Yeah, man, there's lots for you to learn if you want to be competitive. 

YashaX

The reason you are doing little damage and others are doing enormous damage is simple. You have poor gear and they have OP gear.

The non-vet campaign used to be fairly balanced so that gear made little to no difference, but they recently changed it so that gear works the same way it does in the Vet campaign. So if you are just starting out you will be playing against players with champion points and gold or purple items/sets with top enchants.

Also because of the way scaling now works you will have to keep your gear up to date. That means new purple/gold items every couple of levels (if you want to have the optimum set up; you could probably leave it to every four levels). Your damage and armor goes down dramatically if you use gear that is of a lower level.

If you play a bit you will notice there are basically two types of players- the fodder (players like you) and the twinks. Sometimes you will get into a one vs one with some other fodder and have a fun fight, other times you will be taking a keep with your group of 10-12 fodder and a couple of twinks will come along and wipe you. That is ESO's non-Vet pvp now, very sad.

All that nice advice everyone gave above? Yes it is valid, but even if you do all that it will only give you the upper hand verses other fodder. You will still be dog food against any well geared player.

What you have to do to be strong in non-Vet pvp is this: Get as much money and champion points as you can (about 400 CP will be good), start a new toon, buy or craft gold/purple items with best enchants every couple of levels, enjoy 15K wrecking blows and dragon leaps, 10K snipes, 3.5K light attacks, and shields bigger than your current health pool. You won't need to think much, but if you optimize your play as the people above suggested, it will be a bloodbath.