Elder Scrolls Online PvP Battlegrounds are 4 v 4 v 4. They are a way to hone your skills as a player in ESO and as a player in general. Each player can and will play their class differently. BG’s are a way to become a master of your class as well as learn what other classes are capable of doing and how to respond. Want to be the best ESO player you can be? Start here with some Battlegrounds. Queue today with your in-game Group & Activity Finder! 101K XP for your first win of the day!
Gear
Battlegrounds are a non-champion point (CP) environment within ESO. There are under level 50 (10-49) and there are level 50 battlegrounds. Battlegrounds are all about your gear sets and your skill as a player. So as long as you have made it to CP 160 and have acquired the sets of gear you have chosen you are on a level playing field. With that being said, in the level 50 BG’s you will want to get to CP 160 so that you can begin to wear the CP 160 gear sets for this PvP environment. You can go into battlegrounds before you get this CP 160 gear and begin to practice of course but you will have a pretty difficult time against people with their full gear as most people that PvP frequently will already have these.
TIP: Anyone that is in your group that is CP level 160 and above can trade you gear that they loot that you need and it will be level CP 160 gear after being traded. You could spend your time grinding your CP this way and have full sets ready when you get there!
Once you have reached CP 160 (Dragons are a fun way to grind as well) as mentioned previously, you will want to focus on getting your 3 sets of gear.
- Monster Set (2 piece bonus)
- Body Set (5 piece bonus)
- Jewelry/Weapons (J/W) (5 piece bonus)
I recommend setting up your gear this way because when you begin to have multiple sets of gear for multiple toons it will make it easier to swap out one set for another set. This is of course not always possible but a good guideline to try and follow, you’ll thank me later.
Generally, with my Body Set and my J/W Set, I try to have one damage set and one set to help me stay alive. For instance, on my Magicka Templar, I run Grothdar, Spinner’s and Fortified Brass. The Monster gives a main stat and does damage. Spinners on the body would not work for me because it is a light set, but that doesn’t matter when you make it the J/W set. Fortified Brass can be crafted in any weight so I went with heavy, this is PvP ya know and you’re a beginner after all.
Elder Scrolls online has many different gear sets and potential combinations. You know your play style, so finding the sets that fit your play style is half the fun. So, enjoy the journey you will be a better ESO player because of it.
TIP: If you wear one of all the armor weights (light, medium and heavy) and you get your Undaunted Guild to level 9 in the Guild section under the Skills tab in-game, you will get a total of 6% to all stats (Stamina, Health and Magika). The passive is called Undaunted Mettle.
Enchants/Traits
Once you have your CP 160 gear you will need to enchant it and get the trait needed for your build. In BG’s a big resource pool (stamina or magicka) and high resistances can be very important. As your abilities will cost one of those two resources and having high resistances will enable you to stay alive to do more damage. You can’t do anything when you are dead!
If you are looking at a build site they will have recommendations as to what enchants and traits are for your build specifically. You can create a build that fits your play style as well. Many people enchant for their primary stat on the seven body pieces, enchant recovery on the three jewelry pieces for sustain damage and enchant for Absorb Stamina/Magicka on the weapons dealing damage and regenerating the main stat as well. If you equip a poison on one of your weapons the enchant is negated. Poisons can be useful and can be crafted or purchased at a guild trader the same as your enchants. Traits, however, are part of the RNG system in ESO. If you are farming gear from a dungeon it can drop your piece of gear with many different possible traits. Luckily now there is a transmutation station which was added with the Clockwork City DLC located inside the Brass Fortress in Clockwork City. The cost is 50 transmute crystals per transmutation.
Many sets are craftable and those sets can be crafted with any trait. In BG’s one of the most used traits is Impenetrable(Impen). This trait increases your critical resistance by 258 per gold piece and scales down for purple, blue, and green. I use impen on all of my armor pieces and it works well for me. Some classes have shields and may not have to run as much impen. This is yet another part of the game that is about you and your character and your play style. See what feels good for you, you can always change it later!
TIP: You can get a transmutation station in your in-game house for all your transmutation needs. This way even if you don’t have ESO plus you can still transmute anything you want at your in-game house, and so can your guildies and friends!
Rotation
Your rotation is something that is always evolving as the game changes and skills change. There are certain things that you will always be doing and should be doing:
Buffs/Synergies
Buffs/Synergies are very important and should be a part of every rotation before entering combat and while in combat. YOU MUST KEEP YOUR BUFFS/SYNERGIES UP! The Buffs are a boost to your stats and the Synergies buff your group stats generally healing the group or helping with group damage.
Light/Heavy attacks
Light/Heavy attacks are something you need to do for two reasons. Light attacks help you regen your ultimate faster and Heavy attacks regen your stats. For example, a heavy attack with a sword (melee) will regen Stamina while a heavy attack from a staff (ranged) will regen Magika. In short, doing these two things will allow you to do more damage because you will have your ultimate up more often and you will have more of your main stat either Stamina or Magika allowing you to increase your sustainability in a BG environment.
Abilities
Abilities are the lifeblood of your rotation. There are many abilities to choose from in ESO and I could make a guide just on the abilities alone but we won’t get into detail here about the abilities. This is another part of the game that comes down your play style in my opinion. You can play a Magicka Templar as a completely ranged character or as a melee character. The possibilities in this game are endless and you can make many combinations of abilities work for you. I tend to look at what abilities do the most damage or would help out the most in a group PvP environment like BG’s.
Ultimates
Ultimates are an extension of your abilities and generally are used to help get a player into the execute range of 25-50% health. You can have an ultimate ability on both of your bars. I run a healing ultimate on one bar called Practiced Incantation and a damage ultimate on the other bar called Dawnbreaker of Smiting. Incantation allows me to heal the entire group if we get into a heavy damage encounter and if the encounter calls for more damage. I can swap bars and use Dawnbreaker to stun anyone in range causing them to take big initial damage and it puts a DOT (damage over time) on them for extra pressure damage.
Executes
Executes are what you use to finish off a player after you have gone through the rotation of your regular abilities and your ultimate ability, you execute when the target is below 50% or 25% health depending on your tooltip on the ability. Executes do more damage to a player below a certain amount of health generally 25-50% health remaining. For example, on my Templar I use Radiant Oppression, a morph of Radiant Destruction and can be found as the fifth ability under the Dawn’s Wrath skills in the Templars class abilities. 480% more damage to a target below 50% health, yes, please!
Bar Swapping
Bar Swapping allows you to use up to 12 different abilities, 6 on each bar. Bar Swapping is something a lot of players struggle within this game initially. Many people have trouble with it, so don’t worry you are not alone! The way that I set up my bars is pretty simple and has helped increase my damage out-put and helped me improve as a player doing BG’s in ESO. You have 5 abilities and an Ultimate. I use a Razer Naga and have all of my abilities on the mouse as 1 through 5 and the ultimate is on the 6 button. Place your swap bar button somewhere it is very easy to get to. I recommend the mouse scroll wheel. My scroll down activates the bar swap for me and has been a game-changer. It may take a little getting used to but it’s worth it for sure, as is the investment in a gaming mouse like the Razer Naga.
TIP: Now as for your abilities on your bars put them in similar places on either bar. So, my buffs are always #1 on both bars, my dots are #2, my gap closer/ranged attack are #3, #4 is always a spammable attack (something that doesn’t cost a lot but does good damage) and my self-heal on my Templar is always #5. This way when you swap bars no matter what bar you are on you will be hitting a similar attack even if you happen to swap to the wrong bar.
In the next article, we will discuss Food, Mundus Stones and Potions. Stay tuned!
Emob produces live content on Twitch. He has been playing MMO’s since 2006. Switched games to Elder Scrolls Online in 2016, which is where you will catch him playing these days. He currently plays a Magicka Templar. Find him at EmobTV on Twitch. Go watch some PvP!
