Are the new PvP Monster Sets any good in Elder Scrolls Online?

ESO (Elder Scrolls Online) players will finally be able to play the new Ascending Tide DLC and update today, with the new dungeons Shipwright's Regret and Coral Aerie and the new changes to combat being the main focus of ESO’s latest addition.

However the game will also see the debut of something long-requested by many PvP players - monster sets specifically geared towards PvP that can only be obtained by participating in PvP, namely in Imperial City.

There are three new monster sets that will now be obtainable in Imperial City, and in this article we will take a look at each of them, how you can get them and what build options they give you.

Nunatak is the first of the new monster sets we will look at today. Wearing one piece of this set will grant you some extra armor, while wearing both gives you the ability to create a fairly small frost AOE under the target which will apply a 25% snare to a target that is stood in it every second. If the snare stacks four times, they are immobilized and are also afflicted with Major Brittle. This is the first time that Major Brittle makes an appearance as a debuff in ESO, with Minor Brittle often being applied by a Warden DPS player or off-tank in organized raid groups.

To be honest I see this set being more impactful in PvE than PvP. For groups that are not hitting the critical damage cap for whatever reason, a tank can quite easily equip this set to give their group some extra critical damage, as they are usually using a frost staff anyway.

The problem that I see with this set in PvP is that the AOE is really quite small and easy for the target to escape from - a simple dodge roll and they will be out of the AOE. It’s hard to see many cases where your opponent is going to just stand in this AOE for four seconds to get the immobilize and debuff on them. Maybe it has some niche application for attrition-based builds where you aim to force your opponent to spend resources to avoid the AOE.

I assume that Zenimax wanted these sets to be primarily focused on, or at least viable for PvP, as they are obtainable in a PvP zone with a currency that you can earn by killing players, so I think they could make this set better in such instances by either making the AOE larger or speeding up the rate at which the stacks are applied. The set has a nice idea behind it, I think it just needs to be tweaked to make it more impactful in PvP.

Lady Malygda seems at first glance to be a much better option for PvP than Nunatak.

Wearing one piece of this set gives you more offensive penetration against all targets, effectively buffing all of your outgoing damage. While this stat buff is good for both PvE and PvP players, there are a plethora of other ways for PvE players to increase their penetration, especially in organized groups, so I don’t see it being used much in PvE for that purpose.

The bonus for wearing both pieces is definitely PvP focused however. When activated it will send a fast moving shock AOE to the target, doing some damage on contact and applying Minor Enervation, a debuff that reduces their critical damage value. Lady Malygda gives PvP players a simple package that both buffs their own damage done while reducing the damage done by their opponent.

It’s worth noting however that you can get a much better uptime of the Minor Enervation debuff on your target by using either an Enervating Poison or another set like Critical Riposte. Nonetheless, I think this set brings some extra flexibility to potential build options, and is still good enough to worth exploring.

Baron Thirsk is the third and final Imperial City monster set being added to the Elder Scrolls Online with Ascending Tide.

Wearing one piece grants you some extra magicka and stamina recovery, a simple stat buff to your sustain, something which is often welcome in a wide variety of builds.

Wearing both pieces allows you to summon scamps which will explode on your enemies, damaging up to six targets and also inflicting Minor Timidity, a debuff which is effectively the opposite of Minor Heroism. Sapping ultimate will do literally nothing against non-player targets, so this set is clearly aimed primarily at PvP.

I think that draining a small amount of your opponent’s ultimate isn’t hugely impactful, but it will of course “slow down” your opponent to some degree and perhaps widen the window of opportunity you have to apply pressure before their ultimate is fully charged.

The set actually summons three scamps, and each one that hits will increase the damage of the next one by 100%. The third and final scamp can actually hit for quite a lot of damage if it crits, so the set isn’t a bad option if you just want to dish out some extra damage.Baron Thirsk Monster Set in ESO (Elder Scrolls Online)The head piece of these sets can be obtained by defeating the corresponding boss in Imperial City. The shoulder pieces can be obtained from boxes that are bought in your alliance base in Imperial City Sewers.

We hope you enjoyed this article about the new Ascending Tide monster sets in ESO (Elder Scrolls Online). The Elder Scrolls Online is a massively multiplayer online game (MMO) and is developed by Zenimax Online Studios.