PvP Guide

[Haz Taroth]

Hello fellow member of the mighty Great House Hlaalu! 

I believe that my first task as a PvP officer is to write an actual guide about PvP.  It will include preparation, strategy, communication, efficiency, and the various roles to fill on the battlefield.

Firstly, a disclaimer, it will be a HUGE Wall-o-text and secondly, a good part of it only applies to serious pvp sessions; like planned events or special operations.  Not when we're just dicking around in Cyrodill to have some fun.  So, take your time and don't try to assimilate everything in one go.  Come in here from time to time to learn more about the wonderful world of 'Efficient Murder of Fellow Players", and feast with me on their tears!

But first , a small intro video

Summary

I Preparation

II Communication

III Organization

IV Strategy/Tactics

V Teambuilds

VI Formation

I Preparation

Every PvP session should start with a 15 min briefing.  This briefing will entail go over the basic strategy and goals for our event(Keep in mind goals often change in the midst of PvP and strategies have to adapt so this will be a basic of basic plan).  During the briefing a General(One of the Councilors or experienced PvPers) will select Commanders(based off experience and number of available players) that he can rely on to make quick decisions and adapt while leading other members.

Commanders will go over necessary supplies for the event.  Some of the basic supplies you should try to always have when entering PvP are as follows:

• 10 filled soul gems(healers  need more)
• 4 trebuchets and/or 1 ram
• 2 meatbag catapaults and/or pact ballistas

Scouts will be informed of their roles(depending on number of players) which may include but not be limited to:

• Finding a good location for a forward camp or two
• Running ahead to begin attacking a different Keep and/or resources to draw opponents away from the actual target
• Picking off stragglers on the roads toward the targeted Keep
• Siege repair

Commanders will have a multitude of responsibilities including but not limited to:

• Carrying at least 1 meatbag and fire trebuchet
• Carrying at least 1 oil trebuchet
• Carrying at least 1 ram
• Managing a group of 4 or more players

Other than that, we'll try to make food and potions availible asap for every member. And you will be asked to keep your food buff active for the rest of the pvp session.

II Communication

Clearly comunication is the line that set appart a bunch of twats runin around like headless chicken, and a group working as a real team. Here are the basics:

1. When an event starts try not to get sidetracked or distracted.  We love to joke around as much as the next but during events we are trying to accomplish specific objectives.
2. A Commander will designate a certain code word to catch attention, for now if a Commander says "break" be silent immediately.  This means that everyone needs to pay attention because something important either needs to be said or is about to happen
3. TS will be utilized in a variety of ways for the purpose of organization.  If possible we will have squads in separate channels with Commanders and the General relaying information to each other.
4. People arguing with a commanded will be silenced on teamspeak, leave that for the debriefing.
5. When hostiles are spotted don't rush at them immediately, there could be more going on such as them being bait for a trap.  Follow a few precautions:

• If you can stealth, do so immediately
• Use the compass and determine their direction from your squad/group
• Determine the distance they are from you
• Estimate the number of hostiles
• Don't just blurt everything out, but get the Commander's attention and notify them of the incoming

Consider that your basic drill.

From that point the squad leader will give you orders on your next move. and if the situation allow it , warn the team leader.

Feel free to fire any penis joke when we resupply tho

Also keep in mind this applies to events, if out just killing time we welcome all the bullshit, we want to have fun!

III Organization 

Here is the structure for a full raid:

Team 1:

• Team leader in this squad will utilize his squad as a personal guard, the squad member mission is establishing security around the team leader, so he can focus on the big picture. Other than that they are resource than can be sent temporarily to another squad to reinforce it if it is needed.

Other Teams:

• Roles will be determined in briefing prior to event, we will try to make sure squad leaders get roles they are good at and enjoy, but often times it will not be possible to satisfy everyone

All Teams:

• Strategy is to be determined by the Commander of each group after the briefing has concluded and Commanders have their roles
• If you have an issue with plans and/or commands while engaged DO NOT SPEAK UP DURING THE ENGAGEMENT.  There will be a debriefing after the event at which time everyone will be welcome to share suggestions on how things "could" have gone smoother
• If your group is not currently engaged and you have an idea that you think can help then get the Commander's attention and run it by them, if it's a good idea to them they can forward it on.  Don't be upset if they don't like it, simply bring it up after the event in the debriefing
• If a Commander screws up, they will know, DO NOT RAGE THEM DURING THE EVENT.  Once again there will be a debriefing at which time you can rag on them until they crush their keyboard.
• We are open to new Commanders, if you have an interest in leading a group the only way we will know is if you speak up.  There will be serious events in which we will have our "best and brightest" in charge, but those won't be the only events.  Let us know so we can plan events for you to have your chance.

PUGS(Pick Up Groups):

• PUGS will be utilized in a variety of ways.  In no way do we intend to simply zerg around everywhere with a massive blob of PUGS.  They can however have their uses
• In some cases we may designate one Commander to take a small group of our members and gather a zerg to push in one specific direction while we take the real effort somewhere else

 -Division system

We are rolling out a new division system that will be used in PvP. It is still a work in progress and I intend to add more detail and possibly make changes as time goes on.

The benefit of this system is that everyone has a clear role to play in battle and that everyone can be given simple orders that pertain to their whole Division, allowing for more complex field strategies.

Here is the current state and feedback is welcome:

 

• Healers

Not much to say here. People in this division would be primarily tasked with keeping the group alive and de-spelling debuffs. This would be made up of Templars and Resto-staff users. 

 

A healers main job will be to stay at range and keep the group alive during open battles, grouping up on rams to keep attackers alive, keeping attackers alive on walls, and keeping siege operators alive while hitting walls from afar. This includes not only pure "healing" skills but also party buffs and support skills (like the ever important Siege Shield.) They would also serve as back up sentries, letting us know when players are coming in behind us during a siege. 

• Bruisers

These are your tanks and your melee DPS. They will tend to be high health, pretty hard hitting, good at surviving, and decent with CC. The role of the Bruiser is to take the blunt of enemy attacks in the open field, chase down and CC fleeing enemies when the battle turns our way, group up on rams when taking keeps, and operate siege weapons. 

• Ranged

These are your archers and your mages. This is not a damage only group, but also includes ranged CC (such as those specializing in the Sorcerer's Dark Magic line.)

The purpose of this group is to attack from afar while the bruisers hold people in place and take damage. They will also be tasked with doing things like taking defenders off of walls during keep attacks or focusing down with AoEs during keep defenses. 

 

• Scouts

This group is going to be made up of our fast types and our sneaky types. They may be melee DPS, ranged , or a combination. They'll tend to not be as survivable as the bruisers, but have greater mobility, stealth, and burst damage.

Scouts will tend to roam ahead of and to the side of the group as we move through the open field. Their purpose includes reporting on the location of enemy troops, the sate of keep repairs (for attacking and defending both), and in assisting bruisers in close quarters fighting when needed. 

 

Each member of the guild would be asked to pick a primary division for each character they play in the guild. If they switch builds from time to time, they will be able to switch divisions as they please. The only restriction on division switching is that players will not be able to switch divisions during battle. We don't want to say, "bruisers, focus on their healers" only to have someone decide that they are a scout and wander off.

 

I think this system will really help our group dynamics and organization, giving everyone a role to play in the battle and helping us defeat similarly sized or even larger groups through superior tactics.

 

Examples of orders might be:

"Healers, buff the Bruisers before they run in." "Healers, Ranged is under fire, focus heals on them."

"Ranged, CC the fleeing enemies." "Ranged, wait until the gates break then AoE focus on the murder hole."

"Scouts, move ahead to ____ Keep and report on defenses and state of repairs." "Scouts, move ahead and tell us how many people are running with the Elder Scroll."

"Bruisers, group up on the ram." "Bruisers, go after their healers first."

The way I was thinking leadership would go is:

Groups will always have a primary leader. When I'm on, this will be me. Otherwise, it will be one of the Councilors. If no Councilor is on, it will be the next highest ranking member or whoever the group agrees to.

Divisions will also have lieutenants. Lieutenants still take tactical orders from the Commander, but are in charge of moment to moment decisions.

For instance, I might tell the scouts to go run ahead and see how many people are running with the Elder Scroll. Once the scouts get there, they might decide that there are few enough people that they can take them out on their own. At that point, the Lieutenant would inform me that there are "only 6 guys" and that he intends to take them by himself. 

The main point of organizing things this way is to prevent groups from falling into zerg mentality, which is rather easy to defeat with superior tactics. 

 

 

IV Strategy Tactics

To keep things simple, we'll divide these into two categories:

Offensive and Defensive

1) Offensive:

• Blitzkrieg/Rush: An "All In" fast attack or preemptive strike in which we try to catch our opponent off guard before they have the chance to organize.
• Starve Them Out: A tactic used to bring out the defenders on a well defended Keep or other objective.  Can be executed in two ways, either having 1-4 members continuously siege different walls to keep your opponent from being able to quickly port into the objective, or get a wall to just before it begins crumbling and then have everyone stealth and wait till the defenders move on.
• Darwin's Bait: Utilize a small group(led by one Commander) to act like they are attacking a specific objective to lure your opposition there.  The Commander and his group will then be responsible for utilizing whatever tactics necessary to keep a large force where they are instead of at the actual target.
• Hazbait: Our very own naked Nord will show off his amazing PvP skillz to lure unsuspecting enemies into an ambush where our members will be stealthed and waiting.
• Plug the Gap: This will be where we use any available choke point as an ambush site, we will have a small group remain visible and lead enemies to a choke point flanking group remains in stealth on the same side the enemy is coming from, once the enemy group has passed the group in stealth both of our groups will converge.
• Here I come!  Not!: A feint move where we throw ourselves at an enemy Keep allowing ourselves to be killed while a scout group moves to another far off Keep or objective and sets down several forward camps for us to spawn on after the suicide feint.
  
• Surprise!: Flanking will be a part of the majority of our tactics, we will likely have a dedicated flanking group for each event that utilizes stealth as often as possible to surprise enemies and/or quickly turn the tides of a battle.  The Flanking Group will need to utilize Teambuilds to it's fullest in order to be effective.
• Let it Crumble: I don't see us using this tactic very often, but in some cases it may be a very useful tool.  Utilizing siege weapons to raze a Keep to the ground, simply put we will destroy everything that can be destroyed leaving the targeted faction a huge mess to clean up.  We will not claim the objective, just utterly destroy it.
• Thinking Ahead: This is where we will have scout groups go around and find undefended areas, or send them ahead to our next target and lower walls and/or resources' defenses(namely NPCs) so that when the main force arrives everything is weakened and things progress much faster.
• Burning Shadows: This should be utilized during every event.  Every so often lay down an AOE spell or ability in prime ambush areas and see if something appears in the shadows.  If everyone casts something every 5-10 seconds no one runs out of mana/stamina and the area is kept a bit more secure.
• Keyboard Destruction: You know how there are those PvE areas within Cyrodil where lowbies and Carebears will likely try to hang out from time to time?  We will visit those at times and just obliterate any opposing players that choose to venture in while we're there.
• Smash and Grab: This will be a tactic we use to attain scrolls not within there home temple.  The object is to take down the outer and inner wall as quickly as possible and just rush in to where the scroll is sitting, then run it back to one of our keeps/temple.

2) Defensive:

• Turtling: A counter measure to the Blitzkreig/Rush in which you back into your NPCs and/or behind your walls and set up siege and lay down Mercenaries

-Fire and Movement/Overwatch

Fire and movement can be performed by any unit made up of at least two soldiers

Basicly , a ranged squad/ guys on siege fire at an enemy while melee sealth or advance behind cover/concealment toward the target. once they engage the supporting element can change position or charge/keep supressing while melee keeps the enemy busy.  Suppression/Advance/Assault basicly.

Defensive:

-Keep defense setup

• Healers to top of keep walls
• Avoid line of sight targeting and aoe pools
• Pbaoe users and a few bruisers as bodyguard at choke point
• Use snares as often as possible
• Caster should spam pots to keep up with the attacking waves
• Pre-assign a healer to re-buff and resurrect any fallen allies and have a covering healer
• interrupt enemy healers whenever you can
• Don’t move from the pre-set location

 

-Defence in depth

delay rather than prevent the advance of an attacker, buying time and causing additional casualties by yielding space. Rather than defeating an attacker with a single, strong defensive line, defence in depth relies on the tendency of an attack to lose momentum over a period of time or as it covers a larger area. A defender can thus yield lightly defended territory in an effort to stress an attacker's logistics or spread out a numerically superior attacking force. Once an attacker has lost momentum or is forced to spread out to pacify a large area, defensive counter-attacks can be mounted on the attacker's weak points with the goal being to cause attrition warfare or drive the attacker back to its original starting position.

-The Fabian strategy 

 a military strategy where pitched battles and frontal assaults are avoided in favor of wearing down an opponent through a war of attrition and indirection. While avoiding decisive battles, the side employing this strategy harasses its enemy through skirmishes to cause attrition, disrupt supply and affect morale. Employment of this strategy implies that the side adopting this strategy believes time is on its side, but it may also be adopted when no feasible alternative strategy can be devised.

-Counter siege

•  When a keep is under siege , the firt mesure is counter siege. 
• Oil on choke points
• Meatbag/fire ballista combo on large groups of players
• fire trebs and such on enemis trebs

If outnumbered remember than a single player can operate up to 3 siege efficiently.

-Mages guard

They can be bough at mercenary merchant in the two morrowind gates.

If outnumbered they can repell a few enemy assault and give you time to regroup or for backup to arrive

They count as siege weapon , and are perfect placed out of lign of sight in choke points

Sometime provide opportunity for a counter assault

-Pinching 

One group goes out and hits the attackers from behind then the main group leads a charge form the other direction, out of the keep

V Teambuilds 

All of this needs testing, it's skill combo well timed to explain it simply.

-Timed soul strike: 3 or more player launch it on the very same target at the same time. efficiently taking down a high priority target without any hope to keep him alive.

-DK murder fest: 3x dark talons 3x impale 1xDK standart + optional impulse and inferno in the middle. 

-Double tap: 3 or more bow shoot a charged arrow from stealth a target direclty folowed by a poison arrow.

-Jungle fest: focusing a proprity target, especialy a healer not under unstopable with knockback attack one after another , negating his ability to heal.

-Icarus flight: well timed knockback toward a pit , killing enemy from fall damage.

-Melee nightmare: two ash cloud morphed differently , dual wield spark, just turn melee damage off.

-flogging: use DK reflective scale on casters and hidden blade spamer, use absorb magick morph from defensive stance as a breather to regenerate magicka while staying alive.

-Necro rape: dude launch Necrotic Orb, team press synergy button, everybody dies.

-STFU and watch your beloved die: require a lot of DK with petrify , but basicly you keep the majority of the enemy force understunlock powerless while you take down a portion of the enemy force, then you do it again until everybody is dead.

-Atrosquad: 5 sorcerer launch summon atronach at the same time. whole team spam chain lightning synergy.

-Melee master race: against an heavy oriented magic enemy force , keep a dome of negte magic on opponent. 

-It's a trap!: 3 mages or more lay down Daedric Minefield in an attempt to trap or halt a charge.

-Suicide squad: 8+ Volatile Familiar launched at the enemy.

-Lightning Flood and synergy spam can turn the tide

-Ussain bolt mage: a squad of mage lay in a straight line from scroll location to scroll target separated by the distance it would take for them to be out of magicka, basicly a  relay .

-Consuming Darkness x 6 can make an awesome breaker and confuse the shit out of the enemy forces.

-Get dickstabed: Mark Target x4 thenTeleport Strike x4 on the same target , than back off, he's probably dead.

-FEAR US: fear spam on dangerous spot like top of towers and bridges

-Javelin row: get 2-3 row of Binding Javelin and kock them back to oblivion.

- Templars call targets using BackLash and everyone focuses on the guy with the spot light.

 

Still need more ideas , especialy about healers teambuild, since i just dont have any knowledge.

VI Formation

 

Formations act as a guide for where people should be to best fit the situation. They are very flexible creatures, and should be adapted as needed to fit the situation.

When it comes time to establish a formation, a leader must remember that he must give RELATIVE offsets. This means that the leader is telling teams where to go, relative to the direction of movement and the leading element.

For example, to describe a standard wedge formation, a team leader would say:

• "Squad, form wedge, oriented south-west.
• -First line Bruisers
• -Mid line souts and ranged
• -back line healers

That's the classic. A few examples:

So red for Bruisers

yellow for scouts

Blue for Casters

green for healers

Here you go! still a work in progress but it's complete enough for you to read.

[D3rpyMuffins]

Good stuff! Can't wait to start implementing these tactics :D 

[Dan The Impaler]

Thanks Haz! I believe that it is very important to have general debriefings like this. It brings everyone closer to the same page. Being able to act as one will gives us a giant strategic advantage.

[ChaseSimpson9]

This stuff is intimidating haha

[NordJitsu]

ChaseSimpson9 wrote:

This stuff is intimidating haha

Don't try to take it all in at once.

The absolutely most important things from the guide are:

1. No chatter during events. Try to hear directions the first time so group lead doesn't have to repeat himself. 

2. Follow directions quickly and don't argue, especially during combat.

3. Know your division so you can know which orders pertain to you.

4. Sign up for raids when you can and try your best to attend the pre-meeting.

5. Always come prepared, as per the preparation directions (siege, soul gems, ect.)

If communication is clean, organization will follow.

The specific tactics, especially the advanced ones, are going to take time to perfect and for everyone to learn.