Are you an avid player of The Elder Scrolls Online PvP scene? If so, you may have heard the latest news about the game's upcoming patch that is causing quite a stir. The most recent update has caused significant changes to one of the best PvP sets, Mara's Balm, leaving players scrambling to find alternatives. So we delve into the details of this patch and explore the effects it may have on your PvP build.

• What's Changed?
• Crafted PvP Sets
• Overland PvP Sets
• Cyrodiil/PVP Sets

↖ What's Changed?

The current best PvP set, whether you like it or not, is incredibly effective at keeping you alive, particularly on classes that lack a cleanse. However, there have been changes made to it. The purging effect, which occurs when the set becomes active as a five-piece on your back bar, used to be available every 15 seconds. 

Now, it can only be used once every 30 seconds. Although the set does provide some healing, its primary function is to purge negative effects from the player. The amount of healing you receive is directly proportional to the number of negative effects removed, which can range from 10,000 to 15,000. Although the set is still usable, it's healing per second has been nerfed. 

As a result, it may no longer be the top choice for every PvP situation. For those who are new to the game, returning players, or seasoned PvP players looking for alternatives, there are other sets available to consider.

↖ Crafted PvP Sets

For those who are looking for alternative PvP sets, Daedric Trickery, also known as Trick Daddy, is highly recommended. This set allows you to stack defensive buffs by gaining one of five major buffs for 21 seconds whenever you deal damage. These buffs include Expedition, Protection, Mending, Heroes, and Vitality. By frequently switching to your back bar and dealing damage, you can stack multiple defensive buffs, such as Major Heroes, Major Expedition, and Major Protection, making it a great choice for Dragonknights. This set used to be the meta set for Dragonknights because of its major heroism bonus.

Another craftable option for those who want an easy-to-get set is Trial by Fire. This set gives you 7,413 armour whenever you are under the effect of an elemental status effect, which is always in combat. This provides a tremendous amount of damage reduction, and it only requires three traits to craft it.

If you are struggling with resource sustain, a great back bar defensive set for some classes, such as Magic Wardens, is Wretched Vitality. This set also requires only three traits to craft it and allows you to apply a minor buff or debuff to a target for magic and stamina recovery, while a major buff or debuff provides even more recovery. Some classes can even give you both a minor and major buff at once, like the Sorcerer's Hurricane skill that grants you Minor Expedition and Major Resolve. By using a set like Wretched Vitality on your back bar and switching to an offensive five-piece or arena weapon on your front bar, you can efficiently handle healing, cleansing, and resource sustain during combat.

↖ Overland PvP Sets

Let's discuss some overland PvP sets, starting with the light armour sets. Before the release of the Mars Bomb, the go-to set was the Probe of the Hiss. This set comes from the Evan Heart pack in the base game, and Shadow Finn is the vendor who sells it. The set's five-piece bonus provides constant healing of 1,850 health per second for five seconds every time you're hit by a disabling effect, immobilization, or a snare. This effect can only apply once per second and cannot stack. As a result, flipping to your back bar and equipping this set is a great way to keep yourself survivable in the face of constant pressure.

Moving on to a heavy armour set, the Grace of Gloom comes from the Somerset overland. Whenever you take damage, you become a living shadow for 10 seconds, healing for 1,367 every two seconds and gaining major evasion, which reduces AoE damage by 20%. This effect scales off your max health and can occur every 20 seconds.

The Pariah set, which is a popular set, comes from the Rothgar DLC but can also be purchased from traders at Tamriel Trade Center, and The price of ESO gold required is also reasonable. . The set's bonus makes you tanker the lower your health goes, allowing you to reach over 10,000 resistances when it's at gold quality. It's ideal for keeping this set on your body at all times and works well with the vampire undeath passive, particularly at stage 3.

Another set that's often overlooked is the Hide of the Werewolf, which comes from the Glenumbra Daggerfall Covenant. This medium armour set generates six ultimate every time you take damage, and it can occur every five seconds. It's a good choice if you need an ultimate-gen set.

Lastly, the Essence Thief set from the White-Gold Tower dungeon is a medium armour set that spawns an essence when you hit a target on your back bar. The essence provides stamina, health, and a weapon damage buff, making it a versatile option for players who need extra healing and have high mobility. However, the set does require some getting used to, as you must hit a target and chase down the essence. It can also be a great front bar five-piece for damage on specific classes like the Warden with 2H or Necro with 2H.

↖ Cyrodiil/PVP Sets

The Cyrodiil/PVP set is highly recommended for new players to run on their back bar, especially for a templar. It's best to equip a sword and board and wear three heavy pieces on the body, specifically on the chest, legs, and boots. It's also recommended to stack as many attributes as possible into health. This set is great for defensive playstyle as it allows players to block and flip to their back bar to heal themselves. With over 45,000 to 50,000 hp, the healing is significant, and the major evasion is fantastic. Combining this set with something like Polar Winds for the Warden and Death's Wind, which pumps up resources with one-piece mythic, makes it an even better defensive set.

Another PVP set alternative is the Metal set, and its unique ability is the Rallying Cry. This set comes in light armour, and it heals the player critically, shooting out a buff radius for 12 meters, giving weapon and spell damage, and critical resistance for 20 seconds. The number of people hit by this attack will decrease the total amount of weapon and spell damage and critical resistance. This set is also fantastic for damage, allowing players to hit Resolving Vigor or another type of heel on their back bar. If they critically heal with it, they'll shoot out a little blue circle, and they'll get weapon and spell damage, which influences their healing, allowing them to heal for more and with critical resistance.

Players can get creative with defensive sets by using Swords and Shield. With this setup, they can have one five-piece active on the sword and another five-piece active on the shield. If they flip to their back bar, something like Grace of Gloom and Rallying Cry will proc and bail them out if they need double defences.

Crest of Cyrodiil is another set that's great for high-hp builds. When blocking, players can heal for 4,226 every four seconds, scaling off their max health. This set used to be useful when arching blast scaled off of max health on a warden, where players stacked a ton of hp, used death dealers, went to their back bar, hit arching blast, held block, and boom! They would be back to full health.

The buffer of the Swift is another set that players often overlook. It reduces damage taken from players by 10, making it useful as it stacks with major and minor buffs. It's not a major buff, so it stacks with major and minor buffs, making it a great addition to players' back bars. When using Revealing Flare, players get major protection. They can also use Civic Order and Temporal Guard to get minor protection, allowing them to have 15 mitigation from buffs, major and minor, and another 10 from Buffer of the Swift. By using Bracing Anchor, they can get 20 block mitigation. All of these stack with armour, and if they have 30,000 resistances on top of it, they become almost invincible.

Conclusion:

The recent changes to the Gang Mara set have caused some concern among players. While the set was a beloved staple for many, there are other good options available, and this change may actually be good for the game. Some players may switch to other sets, such as the Rallying Cry Robes of the Hiss or Daedra Trickery. Pariah's on the body is also highly recommended, especially for those playing with no cp. Additionally, Pontus is another good piece for the back bar just for the weapons. However, it is important to remember that this is a partial decision, and it remains to be seen if the developers will undo the change. If the changes go live, they are expected to be implemented on June 5th for PC and June 20th for consoles.