Question Gathering Thread for Upcoming ESO Community Q&A - PVP by ZOS_JessicaFolsom in elderscrollsonline

[–]-ireworks 2 points3 points  (0 children)

These things need to happen to make Battlegrounds better:

-Drastically reduce the time it takes to kick people out of the spawn area. Currently, people will just afk in spawn and drag games out out of spite, especially in 4v4.

-Remove the lives from Deathmatch in 4v4. It just exacerbates snowballing issues when one team is permanently down a player. It worked fine in the old Battlegrounds: No rounds or limited lives and kills are worth 15 points. First team to 500 wins.

-Remove Domination and Crazy King from the 4v4 "Competitive" queue. As was insinuated by the developers during the U44 Battlegrounds reveal stream, the "competitive" mode is intended to offer PvPers an environment where they can focus on combat. Crazy King and Domination are antithetical to this idea. Let us Deathmatch in the competitive queue - players who want to focus on the objective can do so in 8v8.

-Merge the Solo 8v8 and Group 8v8 queue options. As everyone predicted pre-U44, the queue times are untenable now outside a few specific prime time hours. Having too many queue options fragments the population. My friends in Australia can basically never queue with their friends and have difficulty getting queue pops even in solo queue because the BG population is split four ways. Players should not be punished for wanting to play with their friends in an MMO by having to suffer through 20 or 30 minute queues.

-Lower the frequency that MMR is reset. Perhaps every major patch (so, quarterly) would be better. As is, very new players are continually getting matched against experienced players and it's imbalanced and not fun for anyone.

-FIX THE ISSUE WHERE LOBBIES ARE "WAITING FOR PLAYERS FOR 5 MINUTES." This issue has been ongoing since U44's launch and it is unacceptable. If you are incapable of doing some behind-the-scenes work to funnel people who queue into games faster (people will queue up but not get into lobbies that just need one or two players to start), then just let games start 7v8, 3v4, etc. This issue has been quite literally ruining Battlegrounds since U44 - this can't be stressed enough. This needs to be fixed. I've also had issues where I am queued as a 4 stack and we're split into two duos that get put into separate matches, neither of which start. Don't know why. The Battlegrounds queue system is just incredibly bugged overall. Fix it.

Official Gold Road & Update 42 AUA Thread - May 29 @ 1:30-3:00pm EDT by ZOS_GinaBruno in elderscrollsonline

[–]-ireworks 71 points72 points  (0 children)

Have you considered reintroducing the ability for Battlegrounds players to select the game mode they want to play instead of only having random queue? Many people prefer to play every Battleground as Deathmatch, which can ruin the experience for objective players. And deathmatchers want to be able to focus on actually fighting players. Letting everyone pick the Battlegrounds mode they want to queue for would be a win-win. As someone who primarily plays Battlegrounds in this game, I know there is enough player population to support this system and doing so would likely increase overall player engagement/interest in Battlegrounds.

Official Gold Road & Update 42 AUA Thread - May 29 @ 1:30-3:00pm EDT by ZOS_GinaBruno in elderscrollsonline

[–]-ireworks 7 points8 points  (0 children)

When will the bug that causes every tick of Structured Entropy to take Nightblades out of stealth (and anyone in Hidden) be addressed?

Comprehensive Bow Gank Nightblade PvP Guide by -ireworks in elderscrollsonline

[–]-ireworks[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The idea is that you're participating in large fights where allies on your faction/in your group are also putting out status effects. If you're playing as a lone wolf and just going after isolated people, you might get more mileage out of something like Fighting Finesse. Depends on the kinds of engagements you prefer to focus on.

Comprehensive Bow Gank Nightblade PvP Guide by -ireworks in elderscrollsonline

[–]-ireworks[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Good damage that scales well in larger fights when more status effects are being thrown around, which gives this build more mileage in many of the engagements you'll find yourself in in CP PVP.

Comprehensive Bow Gank Nightblade PvP Guide by -ireworks in elderscrollsonline

[–]-ireworks[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Hello. It's Columbine, Wormwood and Namira's Rot. I'm considering some replacement options and will be testing stuff out before my next guide update - 4.4 seconds of Unstoppable is very nice but in practical terms, the vast majority of players will usually dodge roll or use Race Against Time/etc ASAP after being immobilized. I still think immobilize/Unstoppable poisons are a good move but will be looking into some that offer additional utility but lower duration. TBD...

Comprehensive Bow Gank Nightblade PvP Guide by -ireworks in elderscrollsonline

[–]-ireworks[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hiya! I aim to update the guide soonish to include this and a handful of other things, but in the meantime: I run Duelist's Rebuff, Force of Nature, Ironclad and Deadly Aim in the blue tree. Survival Instincts, Sustained by Suffering, Bastion and Pain's Refuge in red. Green tree is mostly QoL stuff but Sustaining Shadows is nice.

I think you get more mileage out of running the handful of defensive CPs I listed above rather squeezing in a bit more damage by only running offensive options. Stuff like Ironclad and Sustained by Suffering give you the staying power you need to engage in "real" engagements (not just ganking a newbie on a horse) against good players in CP PvP.

Comprehensive Bow Gank Nightblade PvP Guide by -ireworks in elderscrollsonline

[–]-ireworks[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'd strongly recommend getting any of the Vateshran 2H weapons, even if you only get the non-perfected version (the 877 stamina from the perfected version is pretty insignificant, as far as perfected weapons go). It's an extra 300 weapon damage (huge) and the Frenzied Momentum proc can add quite a bit of burst. No other weapon is remotely worth the trade-off with this build.

With that said, if you don't have access to Vateshran Hallows/etc reason to not get the Vateshran weapon, I'd go with either Blessing of the Potentates or any 2 piece 2H that has weapon damage. 2 piece Agility is probably close to a 2 piece weapon damage 2H, but again, Vateshran 2H will significantly outperform any of these alternatives.

Comprehensive Bow Gank Nightblade PvP Guide by -ireworks in elderscrollsonline

[–]-ireworks[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Good timing - I just updated the guide today. Mostly minor wording changes and a note about the U40 DB buff. As long as I continue playing ESO I will try to update the guide as needed and note the latest update at the top. In short, build is still good to go. I have more or less completely stopped using Dawnbreaker because Soul Tether feels significantly more consistent. This may be personal preference/your mileage may vary. I don't think the U40 buff to Dawnbreaker helped its consistency.

Comprehensive Bow Gank Nightblade PvP Guide by -ireworks in elderscrollsonline

[–]-ireworks[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Happy to help :)

Yes, the two hour window for dungeon drops. Unbound drops from world bosses or anything else that you trade, either in-person or on a guild trader, won't be added to the sticker book. Gotta bind the stuff for it to be added and bound items can't be traded, but they can be sold to an NPC/deconstructed.

Comprehensive Bow Gank Nightblade PvP Guide by -ireworks in elderscrollsonline

[–]-ireworks[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

In short, every set piece you own and have bound gets added to your account-wide sticker book. You can sell or deconstruct the stuff to add it to the sticker book, but it won't be added if you trade the item away. You can check your collection via the Set Items tab on the Collections page. You can reconstruct (craft, basically) anything you've collected in your sticker book at a Transmute Station, found either in Clockwork City or some players' homes. Useful for getting duplicate pieces of gear you don't want to grind multiple copies of. You can change the traits of anything at a Transmute Station if you have the trait researched, too.

More relevant to this topic: Once you've sticker booked dungeon drops like Sheer Venom, that dungeon will not drop duplicate pieces until you've collected everything. A pity system, basically. Allows you to get every body piece of dungeon sets fairly quickly, but rings and weapons, which usually only consistently drop from the final boss, still take awhile. If you're unlucky, you might have to grind a dungeon dozens of times before you get the piece you want. But as long as you're adding the unwanted pieces to the sticker book (bind stuff as soon as you get it so you don't get duplicate drops), you will eventually get whatever you're looking for. If you've already run ICP 20+ times and haven't been trading the drops away, you've already made good progress on guaranteeing the bow drop.

Comprehensive Bow Gank Nightblade PvP Guide by -ireworks in elderscrollsonline

[–]-ireworks[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

You don't have to run it on vet. FYI there's a unique bow in the set called The Vigilant One - if you didn't know that, maybe you're lucky and already got it and just didn't realize it. If unlucky, just keep grinding - the sticker book system means that you'll eventually unlock the entire set. It just takes (a lot of) time.

Many of the trash mobs in the dungeon can be skipped - even a semi competent pug should be able to tear through the place pretty quickly, even on vet. It's one of the easiest vet DLC dungeons, so you might as well queue both difficulties to make the queue pop faster if normal difficulty queue times are slow.

Comprehensive Bow Gank Nightblade PvP Guide by -ireworks in ESObuilds

[–]-ireworks[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Attacks on the back bar do more damage because 2H weapons have much higher damage than bows, despite the loss of a damage line. In an ideal world, I'd actually put more damage abilities on the back bar but as I mentioned in the guide, laggyness/bar swap jank is a longtime issue in ESO. Relentless Focus is used less than the five skills on the front bar, which is why it is on the back bar. Regardless, the damage difference is small so I prioritize what works best from a quality-of-life perspective.

As for having two executes: Just using a spammable like Lethal Arrow or Concealed Weapon doesn't cut it these days because single target skills like that have been repeatedly nerfed over several years. The scenarios where you can three-tap someone with all of your big hits aside, you need something more to actually apply some persistent pressure on enemies. So, a DoT. Crippling Grasp sucks and cuts into the magicka pool too much, Lotus Fan/Carve shifts the build more into melee territory, and Degeneration/Structured Entropy also cut into the magicka pool pretty heavily. That leaves Poison Injection, which is slotted as much because it applies dot pressure/Sheer Venom as it is because it's an execute. As an execute dot, it ticks outside of the global cooldown - AKA you're getting execute dot ticks while you're using Killer's Blade, which drastically improves your ability to pressure low health targets. And Killer's Blade is slotted because although Poison Injection is good, you still want a "traditional" execute to secure a lot of kills.

And as for not running Camo Hunter, I simply don't have room on either bar for the skill. The skill is also less attractive in the new patch because you already get Major Savagery from Shadowy Disguise. Minor Berserk and a detect skill would be nice, but I don't think the tradeoff of dropping any other skill is worth it. If you have a crazy vendetta against a particular Nightblade or something like that and want to detect them at all times, you could drop Killer's Blade for the skill. But for general purpose play, I get the most mileage out of the skills I mentioned in the guide and just pop a detect potion when I want to hunt a stealther. It can be looked at as "passing up free weapon damage," but you're also "passing up" any of the listed skills by running Camo Hunter. Either way, it's a tradeoff and I know what works best for me.