Rainingblood's Cyrodiil Slayers- Preparation and Suggestions

Hi all!

I wanted to create a thread to give anyone attending some things to have before we start so we can get to the fun stuff faster. So here are some things to have (or have completed) before we start rolling on Monday.

• If you haven't done it already,  complete the intro quest for Cyrodiil. You get it at the North gate, and it gives you a nice little base education on the basics of Cyrodiil. It also teaches you how to work Siege engines and you get a skill points too!
• Have the Vivec Campaign set as either your Home or Guest campaign. Vivec is where we'll be holding the training.
• Siege weapons- these are purchased from siege merchants at any of our faction-owned keeps and at our gates. The ones to have are; Pact Ballistae, Fire Ballistae, Flaming Oils, Wall repair kits, and door repair kits. NOTE: don't worry if you don't have gold or AP to spend on the siege. I'll supply siege too.

• Download the add-on, Papa Crown

• TBD- 

I will add more to this thread after some of the things we go over during the training. Aside from Discord, I'll use this as the location for "additional reading", strategy, video links, etc. 

People can also post questions and feedback here instead of the general, or event forums!

-Rainingblood

I will try to make it once a while for your Cyrodiil event.  Unfortunately, I am working those hours so I won't commit being able to go.  I wish you tons of luck.

Awesome! 

Are low levels a help or a hindrance? My character is only level 14. I'll come as I'm able, for sure.

Absolutely come. It's in a CP campaign, but if you're willing to learn then bring whatever you can bring. Ill hook you up with sieges to use too.

Today, we're going to spend the first part of the session to work on group movement, mobility and sticking with/reacting to the raid lead, as well as siege placement and tactics for a few different scenarios for keep offense and defense.

Also, I wanted to post some things that will hopefully be helpful without me having to go over them during the event. :)

Common acronyms/terms

Here are some common ones. Throw in any others I’ve missed. I still learn new ones all the time ;)

• Go dark- crouch/stealth NOW
• Battle coms- silence coms. Crown is giving directions and everyone needs to pay attention
• On crown- get on the raid leader STAT
• Free weapons- free time to roam, fight, quest turn-in, etc. Usually when crown is afk or planning.
• INC!- “in-coming”
• UA- Under attack
• FC, or Camp- Forward Camp
• FD- Front Door

Abilities

It could be a whole thread in itself, but there are some key abilities to use in group AvA. The main thing is to be flexible. You don’t need to respect to go PvP, but have another load-out of skills (or sometimes gear too) for group PvP, and it may even change depending on our group roles that day. For example, I don’t run Barrier, or Siege Shield, but if it’s needed I’ll slot it to help the team be more successful.

• Use abilities that benefit the group- Things that buff the group, or have synergies are HUGE in group fights. Use group buffs in place of self-buffs when running with a group. Some examples are:
• Purifying Ritual (Temp)
• Blazing Spear (Temp)
• Burning Talons (DK)
• Deep Breath (DK)
• Standard of Might/Shifting Standard (DK Ulti)
• Necrotic Orbs- morphs (Undaunted)
• Bone Shield (Undaunted)
• Lightning Flood (Sorc)
• Summon Charged Atro (Sorc Ulti)
• War Horn (Ulti- Alliance War- Assault)

• Swap out single-target skills for AOE- Of course keep 1-or 2 single-target abilities, but if you are running with the group and have your dueling or ganking setup, then you are making the team less effective
• Example Abilities:
• Proximity Detonation (Alliance War- Assault)
• Caltrops (Alliance War- Assault)
• Siege Shield (Alliance War- Support)
• Purge (Alliance War- Support)
• Haunting Curse (Sorc)
• Streak (Sorc)
•  
• Ultimates:
• Eye of Flame/Storm- (Destruction Staff)
• Bat Swarm (“Bats”- Vampire)
• Barrier (Alliance War- Support)
• Soul Tether (NB)
• Negate/Suppression Field (Sorc)

• There are a lot of “Proc sets” like monster sets that can benefit the group as well. I’m not going to go into these right now, but sets like Earthgore (which is way too strong IMO), can be very helpful for the group.

Communication:

In PVP, things happen fast and we need to be able to adapt and react quickly. It can be the make-or-break of a fight, and can be because someone didn't communicate properly, or someone else didn't react to the communication fast enough. Simple things can help and here are a few. Often it's just a matter of everyone being on the same page.

1) Directions: Saying, "Over here!", "I'm being attacked", or "Incoming by me" are examples of probably the worst way to announce an engagement or enemy sighting. By the time everyone figures out where you actually are, the group could be wiped. Generally the best-practice is to use compass points for the direction. Then, if possible, include enemy numbers and their action/status, like "in-coming" / "INC", or passing. For example; "INC, AD SOUTH, 10-15!" Sometimes it's hard to get exact counts of course, but the real reason is for the raid lead to be able to quickly assess what kind of action to take, because there will be a different response to 5 enemies, as opposed to a full raid.

2) Listening: I can't stress how important it is to listen to the raid leader's calls and instructions. For one, it's faster to call everyone to crown, than to explain what's happening and what the group is going to do. Just get to crown when the leader calls it. And that means drop whatever you're doing and get there. Don't pack your siege, don't chase a squirrel, don't go scout something when it wasn't asked of you. Get to crown.

3) Discord chatter. If the crown is giving instructions, ESPECIALLY when in-combat, please don't be talking about your breakfast, or your boyfriend, etc. There are other channels for that. It's easy to get distracted sometimes, especially in situations when it seems like you're waiting forever for the crown to move, be patient and when the crown calls to stop the chatter, please do so asap. They're not trying to be harsh. They are doing their job of leading the group and winning fights while (hopefully) keeping you from getting wiped.

4) Map status: This is for raid leaders as much as it is for group members. As a raid leader it is extremely helpful to be notified of things like flagged keeps, crossed swords, etc. on the map because the leader has so much going on, they can't be aware of every action. Make sure that if you happen to announce something that is just that, and not a suggestion. And raid leaders need to be aware that if someone announces something like a flagged keep, they are not suggesting the group goes there, they are being informative. So how to you make a suggestion? Ask crown if you can make a suggestion. Don't blurt it out, just ask. And they will tell you if it's okay at that time, or not.

Having a lot of fun with the small group we've been getting, but we want more! 

Don't worry if you're low-level or not experienced in PVP, come along. It's a lot of fun pvping with guildies and we've already been leaving out mark.

Come join next week and as always, feel free to hit me up with any questions.

-rainingblood