We take a look at Brian Wheeler's recent PvP mechanics interview.

Brian Wheeler recently gave an interview to mmorpg.com on the topic of PvP in The Elder Scrolls Online. He explained how he and Matt Firor wanted a three faction territory control system which would please both PvP veterans and people just wanting to try it out. He then detailed several mechanics!

“Class” Balance

The skill system allows for better balance than a class system. Most of the skills are shared across the board and not tied to a single class. That way the situation of an overpowered class that cannot be competed against is not possible.

Melee characters can focus on firing siege engines or defending them. Dragonknights can pull enemies to them, and there’s always the possibility of switching to a bow, destruction or healing staff to use range skills.

Vampire and Werewolf abilities are really nice and players will immediately see if they’re against a player who unlocked them and might become interested in unlocking them for themselves. They’re not overpowering, though.

Alliance Points

There are several mechanisms to prevent trading keeps or camping somebody to farm Alliance Points.

• The act of flipping a keep or capturing a keep or resources is worth very little
• A solo player kill at level 50 is worth more than flipping a keep
• If lots of people die during the fight inside the keep/resource or in the area around it, the kill points are distributed to the killers AND copied into the keep or resource point pool, which will be worth more when captured
• During an attack, if no defender dies for a given amount of time (hidden timer), the keep/resource point pool will be distributed to the defenders
• If you kill somebody repeatedly, you won't gain Alliance Points. An enemy is worth a zero amount for a while and then its value scales back up over time. On top of that, a player cannot self-resurrect in PvP and you need Soul Gems to resurrect others.

Population Imbalance

To prevent population imbalances between factions:

• There is a population cap per faction
• There is a scoring imbalance check: if one alliance gets about double the amount of points that the other two alliances own, then the other two alliances get bonuses against that alliance
• They are working on a population imbalance scoring check

Strategy

More in-game tools will be added to organize forces within AvA. Currently, a group leader can set a waypoint on the map for the whole group to see.

Small groups can have a huge impact in AvA. They can take resources (those are designed for 4 players) and cut off transit, destroy the walls of keeps to make the enemy spend all their alliance points and gold in repairs or even defend keeps if they’re well organized.

More answers on PvP on page 2!