Vogorlo’s Guide to becoming Emperor of Tamriel
Skyrim Red Shirts
Introduction
So, think of yourself as a PVP God and want to prove it? Want to get that crown on your head and your ass on that throne, but can’t get it done? Well, this guide will help you fulfil your wish. This isn’t the only way to become emperor, but this guide draws on my own experience of succeeding. Before we start, I won’t be going over the basic mechanics of Cyrodiil apart from becoming Emperor, e.g. how to port around the map, etc. If you are considering becoming Emperor, you should know about this stuff already.
Becoming emperor will grant you the Emperor Achievement, Emperor’s Regelia Costume, the ability to purchase the Ruby Throne of Cyrodiil from the PVP achievement furnisher for 250,000 AP, the Ruby Throne Red dye and the Emperor/Former Emperor Tile. About the title, you will only be called Emperor/Empress whilst you are currently Emperor/Empress in a Cyrodiil campaign, lose the title in your campaign by it ending or being dethroned, and you will lose the title and be reduced to the Former Emperor/Empress title, which is yours forever on all characters.
You will need:
Becoming emperor doesn’t happen overnight, you will need a few essential things to succeed:
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A fully levelled character of any role (I’ll talk about this below) with full gear sets, the more meta the better (I won’t be giving build advice here, ask in the guild chat for advice if you are unsure).
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An understanding of the mechanics of the Cyrodiil PVP mode.
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An ability to lead/convince random players in the zone chat to do what you want.
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A plan for becoming Emperor (More on this below)
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Above all else, a mind-numbing amount of free time and the patience to do nothing but play PVP in Cyrodiil for a week or more. I’m talking 4/5/6 hours a day every day, more on weekends if needed, until you get it done.
Becoming Emperor
It goes without saying that becoming Emperor is a daunting challenge, though there are steps you can take to make this simpler, and there is always the chance of failure. So first it’s worth going over the basics; becoming Emperor requires two things, first you need to be number one on the leaderboard of your home campaign (I’ll talk about this in the planning section below) and second in your selected campaign you must capture the inner ring of 6 keeps and ensure they are all your faction like so:
It is not required to capture the three inner outposts; Sejanus, Nickel and Bleakers, but it helps with getting around the map, so groups tend to take them as they go because it makes it easy to move to the other side of the map and defend if needed.
One thing to note if there is already an Emperor of your faction, you will have to wait until an Emperor of a different faction is crowned, then take the throne once you are number 1.
Roles
Before we get into the meat of the matter, I want to make one thing clear. You DON’T have to be a sweaty damage dealer PVP player to become Emperor, though you can if you want. Personally, I earned the title on a healer so it is doable, no matter what anyone tells you, even if, like me, you suck at killing people in PVP. What does matter is understanding what your role is within the group:
DDs kill and damage stuff,
Healer heals the group and provides supporting buffs,
Tanks protect people and take damage.
Mastering the ins and outs of your role will be the key to success.
Step 1 – Plan your campaign in advance
In my opinion, this is the most essential and often the most neglected part of trying to become Emperor; almost all players who don’t go in with a solid plan will fail. If you are one of those players who just wakes up in the morning and thinks ‘Today I’m going to become Emperor’ and hops in without thinking, then you will NEVER succeed in actually becoming Emperor.
So how do you plan this out?
First, time and timing.
Ensure you have enough time to play ESO for many-many hours, check your real-life obligations and ensure you have the needed amount of time. In the end, this is just a game and your real life must come first, if you don’t think you have the time needed available it’s better to delay your attempt until you are sure you do than to potentially both miss your real-life obligations and not spend enough time in game to get to the top of the leaderboard. Ensure you are ready to begin as soon as the scores on your campaign reset. You want to start playing immediately once everyone’s scores are back to zero (more on this later).
Second, select your campaign with care and once committed, stick to it, don’t change horses’ mid race by moving your home campaign.
If you find no-CP easier, then go with that; if you like CP, that’s fine, also just remember you are going to be there for the long haul. You can do the under level 50 if you want but I don’t recommend it since very few players seriously play that campaign, and hence you will struggle with capturing keeps. The various campaigns have different pros and cons; if you select a campaign that is always mega full you won’t have an issue finding players to group up with but will have to compete against many other players for the top spot on the leaderboard, on the other hand if you pick a lower population server you will find it easier to get to that number 1 spot but you many find it harder to capture the needed keeps if you are outnumbered but the other factions doing the same thing. There are ways to counter these drawbacks that I will go through later. Be sure to home your chosen campaign before it resets and you begin playing.
Third, pick your faction.
One faction doesn’t have any particular advantage over another, expect for this: if you want assistance from Skyrim Red Shirts members, it’s best to select Ebonheart Pact since this is the guild’s official Cyrodiil faction. Having support from willing friends and/or guild members can make all the difference for your odds of success, although it is possible to do it solo, as I di,d if you wish.
Fourth, prepare your consumables.
I’m not just talking about potions and buff food here, although they are required for this, so make sure you have plenty available. Ensure you have a stock of siege weapons and repair kits, quickslotted and ready to go next to your portions. I recommend the following items only: Forward Camps, Regular Ballistas, Battering Rams, Keep Recall Stones and Stone Trebuchets, a few meatbag catapults, and some Flaming Oil pots are handy from time to time, but not as much as the other stuff.
Pay for repair kits with gold if you need to save AP for the others and buy 200 at a time, as for the rest, the more of each you can get, the better, but it’s better to have more Ballistas since you can have 3 down at once vs 1 Ram. As a bonus, if you can get any amount of Coldfire Ballistas and any type of Lancer, then great, don’t bother with the Coldfire Trebuchets; generally they aren’t worth it.
Fifth, prepare your skills
Depending on your role, what you need will be different, as I said, I’m not going into build specifics here. Generally, it’s a good idea to level your Assault and Support skill lines to max and get the passives from both to assist you, as well as skills like Siege Shield and other PVP support skills if you play a support role.
Sixth, get some support
If you are able, make your intentions known to your friends and guild members once you have figured out all of the above. There are two reasons for this: first, you can gather some friends and/or guild members who are willing to help you reach your goal by grouping up and playing PvP with you. Second, it will stop others you know from trying to become Emperor at the same time and inadvertently competing with you.
One strategy to try is to gather several guild members who are all willing to attempt this at the same time and all home then all play the same campaign together, once the first player becomes Emperor then have them move their home campaign over to a different one so they stop accumulating score towards Emperorship but can keep playing in the server to support to others. This will mean, however those players will end up forfeiting the campaign bonus at the end, so keep that in mind, and there may not be enough time for everyone to get it if you're up against stiff competition. I haven’t tried this myself, but it may be worth a shot.
Step 2 – Getting Started
Begin playing as soon as reasonably possible once the scores reset on your chosen campaign. You want to begin accumulating score as soon as you can to have the best chance of reaching the top spot on the leaderboard. Inevitably, there is going to be competition no matter which campaign you select. If you end up waiting a few days before getting score, the top players will be so far ahead of you, you will struggle to catch up before the campaign ends even if they no longer generate score.
From the moment you start, remember to stay focused on your goal. You are there to become Emperor, not get the most kills or farm the most AP, although they sometimes go hand in hand. Do not allow yourself to become distracted from that goal by forming rivalries with other groups or trying to max your AP generation.
Step 3 – Scoring Strategy
Your main goal is to obtain the highest score on the leaderboard, and this is a tall order since the top score can be anywhere from 3 to 6 million points or more, depending on the campaign. Generally, this is the thing that will take you the longest since keeps tend to change hands rapidly. Capturing resources, towns and keeps (I will refer to them collectively as capture points from now on) is generally a more reliable source of score increase than battling opposing players, you can get bigger payoffs from some battles but its unreliable in my opinion e.g. you may earn 40K score from a 2-hour long battle IF you are successful in that battle but in that time, you could have taken capture points worth far more score and of course there is always the risk you could lose the battle and walk away with nothing to show for your time.
When attacking capture points, players are going to take damage from NPCs, and defenders may come to protect them, so ensure you are killing, prioritise killing players over NPCs and/or healing your allies as you go around to get more score. Also, don’t overlook repairing doors and walls after you take a keep, it may be a small amount of score but it will add up in the long run.
Always try to stay grouped up when playing. Forming a group in advance with friends or guild members will give you an advantage in this, but you can find random players in the zone chat if needed. Staying grouped will allow you to hit bigger targets like keeps faster and hence get you a higher score more quickly. Keeping control of your group’s direction and the direction of other groups via zone chat is very important.
The reason for this is twofold; First, you want to ensure you are taking capture points in an organised manner to maximise your score gain. The faster you can get to the top of the leaderboard, the better. Second to make sure you don’t wind up making an Emperor of your faction too early before you are number 1 on the leaderboard, this will then mean you have to wait for that person to be dethroned before you can become Emperor meanwhile other players who are lagging in score will have time to close in on your score and potentially surpass you. If you are going to become Emperor, you MUST be a leader in your campaign’s zone chat.
Strategy
When working with a group, if you don’t own the home keeps, start by capturing those in order as one group, then direct them to clear one side of the map first, as shown below (red arrow):
This will give you the best possible route on this side of the map. You can go for Alessia, keep also if you want (Yellow Ring), but this involves crossing the river and makes going back to the town a long way, plus it's often defended if the AD are determined enough. If you want to speed it up, you can also skip the town on this side, but I don’t recommend it since it's not too far out of your way from the Sejanus outpost.
Once one side of the map has been cleared, then go to the opposite side and do the same thing (blue arrow):
If the enemy defends Aleswell Keep (Green Ring) too well then skip it and go straight from Bleaker's outpost to Bruma (Black arrow), there’s no point in getting bogged down in a long fight for it just yet if you aren’t top of the leaderboard.
The reason it’s done like this is to allow the opposing teams time to recapture the keeps on the side you aren’t attacking. Remember your goal is not to fight the opposing faction for long periods of time, but rather to take the capture points to get as much score as possible.
If forced to go solo due to low population on your server, due to the time of day, or other factors, then do not attempt to take keeps. You can try an outpost using 3 Ballista if you are feeling brave, but you can easily die in the attempt. It’s far quicker to take resources and towns than to spend time smashing down two full HP doors and killing a bunch of NPCs, plus whilst you are doing this you are vulnerable to being killed easily by a passing defender who’s seen the place is under attack and has come to stop you. It’s also good to stay away from large battles between the other two opposing factions. If they are fighting in the Northeast side of the map, go to the Southwestern side and so on.
Either solo or in a group, the main thing is to keep it up until you hit that top spot; it’s a marathon, not a sprint. Even then, you should keep generating score, especially if the top spot has changed hands several times recently. You want a comfortable lead so when you grab that last keep you aren’t just beaten to it by someone else.
Step 4 – Capturing the Inner Ring
Although it may seem like the hard work is over once you are top of the leaderboard, I assure you it’s not. This next part can be just as, if not more difficult, depending on the circumstances. As I said above, now your goal is to capture all 6 inner keeps and hold them all at once, as shown in the image above.
It doesn’t matter how long you hold them for, only that you hold all at once, you can take the last, keep then lose one of them 5 mins later it doesn’t matter, as you will still be Emperor. Losing one without holding all of them will prevent you from becoming Emperor, though.
This is where leading your group and the other groups via zone chat is most essential. AP farming groups may not want to take the inner keeps and will prioritise the outer ones for more AP, and more casual groups may not be bothered about making an Emperor. Ensuring you remain able to direct the bulk of your factions’ players towards the inner keeps will make your job easier. If you can’t and people are determined to ignore you, then build up more score to keep your lead and wait for a better opportunity. If you are lucky, someone may wind up deciding to make an Emperor whilst you aren’t there, and you could log in to find you are Emperor.
Anticipating your opponent’s actions will also assist you in capturing the keeps. Try and predict where your opponents will attack next. If your opponents are focusing on the outer keeps for points, then let them get on with it, if they are strongly defending one of the keeps, you need try and grab the others first and make that your last keep. That way, even if they attack and take it back right away, you will still be Emperor.
Whilst you are doing all of this, it’s important to keep an eye on the leaderboard; rivals can attempt to overtake you in this phase and steal Emperorship out from under you. You will be getting score for taking the inner keeps but if you run into a determined defence this phase can take time and others can overtake you in the interim, if you are overtaken or find yourself close to being Emperor, break off and don’t take the last keep until you have a comfortable lead over the 2nd place person once again. If you do lose the position to someone else, go back to score generation and keep it up until that person is dethroned. If becoming Emperor is all they care about then they will likely stop playing after
Conclusion
And that’s that, hopefully you have succeeded in becoming Emperor in your attempt, if you did well, done and go get some sleep since you probably need it!
If not, don’t be disheartened; this is one of the most difficult ESO things you are trying to do, and success isn’t a given every time. The key thing is that, if you fail, is to understand why you failed and replan your next campaign with that in mind.
Didn’t get enough score to get to the top of the leaderboard? Consider switching to a less crowded server to reduce competition, switch your chosen role to one you find easier to play or try and get in more hours of play time if you reasonably can.
Couldn’t capture the keeps all at once? Practice your leadership skills and learn how best to convince people in zone chat, build a more commanding lead in the leaderboard and wait or try and persuade more friends and or guild members to help you.
If I’m still around you can ask me for specific advice if you want, just DM me and hopefully I can help.