Emperor - Full Guide

Being an Emperor is the most powerful position you can attain in Elder Scrolls Online. Receiving this status is the dream of every PvP player, due in part to the special skill line that comes with attaining the position. These skills are unique and make the player extremely powerful while he is the active Emperor. Furthermore, once you've reached Emperor you retain the skill line, even when another player is crowned, but the skills are much less powerful.

Here is the list of bonuses you receive once you are crowned:

• A special skill line that will stay with your character forever. The skill line is more focused on increasing the effectiveness of sieges and PvP, but can also be useful in PvE.
• Your powers are increased and you deal more damage. Your skills are more powerful and enemies have to gather groups to defeat you ;) A bit of an exaggeration perhaps, but your powers become deadly. You are almost godlike. Almost…
• You receive access to a unique Emperor costume, which we must assume is one of the best looking in the game.

Skills

	Spell	Type
	Domination	Passive
	Authority	Passive
	Monarch	Passive
	Tactician	Passive
	Emperor	Passive

Gaining this status is not only about giving bonuses to a single person. Each alliance will fight to have an Emperor on their side because of the Alliance-wide bonuses. First of all, there are the bonuses gained for holding keeps. It is impossible to crown an Emperor without capturing all 6 keeps and the alliance receives bonuses for each keep. The Emperor also inspires the warriors around him making them stronger.

The most impressive fact about the Emperor is that there can only be 1 crowned person, per campaign at the same time. It is a great honor and responsibility. Once you get this status you become the most powerful warrior in the game. You have skills that can inspire allies and thus you can greatly impact the outcome of fights. Members of your alliance expect to see an active Emperor. So you will have to continue fighting in sieges and big fight in order to support your alliance and to keep your status.

If one alliance has an Emperor and retains it they have a massive advantage, and be sure that the other two alliances are dreaming about crowning their own members.

How to become Emperor?

Now let’s talk more about how you become Emperor. Developers have said that the highest ranking player of the alliance receives this status after the alliance has all 6 keeps around the Imperial City under its control. There is no other way to be crowned. So there are two global tasks: your alliance must control all the keeps around Imperial City and you must be the highest ranked player in your alliance.

The first condition is that you need to be in a strong alliance that has enough power to capture and hold all 6 keeps. It is not an easy task and the whole alliance must work to get this achievement. The more keeps you have under your control the more stretched out your forces become, and with 3 factions not 2, capturing 6 keeps will prove to be very difficult. It is almost impossible to predict which of the 3 alliances, if any, will dominate in the campaign.

The second condition is you must be the highest ranking player of your alliance! Once the alliance takes the last keep the game choses the highest ranking player from an alliance wide campaign leaderboard crowns this player. Thus, the only way to become Emperor in Elder Scrolls Online is to be at the top of the leaderboard. This will require a lot of effort from you. You will have to spend all your time in Cyrodiil fighting with other players, capturing objectives and completing quests. It is a real challenge, but the reward is worth it.

Here are several tips that can help you become the top player of your faction:

Be in a big community. A good start would be to join a PvP-oriented guild or create your own guild. It is better to be a part of a large community that wants to fight in Cyrodiil and is strong enough to capture objectives. This shouldn’t be hard because every player can be a member of up to 5 guilds simultaneously.

Play in groups. Although solo PvP in Cyrodiil is very viable, if you want to get the most points you’ll want to be in a group as you can not only get more kills but also capture objectives. The larger your group the more difficult the tasks it can attempt and the greater the rewards. Who knows, maybe your group will stimulate others to act.

Look at the global map and participate in capturing keeps, farms, villages and mills. The global map shows you where all the action is. This is where you will be informed if there are any large skirmishes or if an Elder Scroll is being moved. If you see that a group of your allies is trying to take an objective – try to help. Capturing objectives and being part of large battles will grant you more points.

Master your characters abilities and your understanding of game mechanics, as it will greatly improve your prowess in PvP. When working in a group, take advantage of synergies to make a greater impact on the battle. Try to be aware of the tide of battle and manage your resources carefully, especially when involved in large scale battles. The longer your survivability the more damage you deal, the more damage you deal the better. The faster you kill enemies – the better.

Many of you may think that only damage dealers can be at the top of the alliance leaderboard, but, this isn’t the case. Healers and tanks are also great roles for reaching the top. That’s because the majority of points aren’t gained from small skirmishes. You get a huge amount of points for capturing and defeating objects, completing quests and for other global actions. Small group PvP is an important part of Cyrodiil, but it is not the most lucrative way to get points.

Becoming Emperor is one of the greatest achievements in the game. It is not easy and will require you gaining mastery over your character as well as spending a lot of time in Cyrodiil. But it is worth it.

How do you lose Emperorship?

It is much easier than to get it. Another alliance must capture the keeps around the Imperial City (this requirement may be changed). Once another alliance achieves this, you will be dethroned and a person from that alliance will receive the honor. You will return from a godlike mode to normal, but your Emperor Skill line will not disappear, the abilities will become just less powerful.

There is one more way to lose Emperorship – you need to change your current campaign. There can’t be more than one Emperor per campaign. It is unknown who will become Emperor after this.

Is it possible to trade / transfer the status to a friend?

Brian Wheeler, lead PvP designer for Elder Scrolls Online, said that it is impossible. If you are an Emperor you only lose this status after another alliance meets the requirements and crowns their own guy.

Is there an Emperor in the beginning of a campaign?

No, the Ruby Throne is free when the campaign starts. In theory, it is possible to play without the Emperor for a long time if none of the alliances can capture and hold required keeps. Due to the difficulty in capturing all 6 keeps it could be a long time before your campaign sees an Emperor.