If you were thinking that Elder Scrolls Online’s update 44 isn’t packing quite the same sparkling DLC punch as past Q4 updates from the game, there’s a reason for that: This is the quarter when ZeniMax Online Studios is meant to be shoring up the existing game, not just adding to it. And this update has at its heart something that the game has needed for a very, very long time: a PvP revamp. That planned overhaul of 2017’s battlegrounds is the subject of the MMOs latest dev blog.
ZOS says that “some of [its] initial goals for the PvP game mode weren’t being wholly met,” hence the retooling. The devs wanted them to offer a “relaxing,” casual-friendly three-sided PvP experience, but the smaller team sizes had the opposite effect, and the three-way fights usually became two-way fights 2 on 1 anyway. To fix it, the devs have switched battlegrounds to two-sided matches with bigger team sizes to accommodate both hardcore and casual PvPers – 4v4 and 8v8, respectively – and then rebuilt the maps, too.
“As a result, Battlegrounds were redesigned into two-sided affairs, although the traditional three-sided matches won’t be gone forever and may return in the future for special one-off events. The team then worked to ensure the new style of Battlegrounds matches were enjoyable for both the competitive and more easygoing players. […] Due to the shift to 4v4 and 8v8 matches, the Battlegrounds maps themselves had to be completely rebuilt from the ground up to accommodate the two different experiences. With Update 44’s launch, there will be seven brand-new maps in total, each with variations to support both the larger and smaller match sizes.”
Definitely take a peek at the whole post if battleground PvP was (or could be) your jam, as it details new power-ups, rewards, and the new maps.
