The builds each list the preferred Mythic chosen by the build’s creator. But what if you do not have that Mythic, or if would rather use something else?

The answer often depends the player’s preference. Brawler classes and builds are well off using Sea-Serpent’s Coil, since they have the survivability to not be bothered by the snare. Still, some players might find it annoying and would rather switch it out. Markyn Majesty works just as well, and other good alternatives for Sea-Serpent’s Coil are Death-Dealer’s Fete and Torc of Tonal Constancy.

For mobile builds, Markyn Majesty is mostly the mythic of choice, although it too can be switched out for Torc of Tonal Constancy or Death Dealer’s Fete.

Mythics are an important part of many builds and provide valuable bonuses that are hard to find an equally strong replacement for. Nevertheless, viable alternatives do exist that will make a build perform worse by only a small margin. 

There are two main types of builds that use mythics. The first type uses a frontbar 5-piece set, a backbar 5-piece set, a 2-piece monster set, a 1-piece Trainee and the Mythic. Here, the mythic can be replaced by a 1-piece Druid’s Braid. The second type of build has a 5-piece set active on one bar and a second 5-piece set active on both bars, with a 1-piece monster set and the Mythic. Here, the mythic can be replaced by a 1-piece of another monster set, in which case you end up with two mismatched 1-piece monster sets. A good example of this is running 1-piece Magma Incarnate and 1-piece Baron Thirsk for a big sustain boost. Alternatively, the 1-piece monster set and the Mythic can be replaced together by a strong 2-piece monster set, such as Balorgh, Engine Guardian or Bloodspawn.

It is advisable to stick to No-CP Cyrodiil, No-CP Imperial City and Battlegrounds when you do not yet have many Champion Points. When you reach about 500-600 Champion Points, you can get many of the active stars in the system. Then it is viable to try out CP-enabled PvP, especially if you play a stronger class. Around 800-1000 Champion Points, you should be able to get all the important CP passives and the difference with 1000+ CP accounts becomes marginal or non-existent. 

Since there’s no restrictions on sets between these two forms of PvP, you can keep using the same build. However, there’s a noticeable loss in sustain from the lack of CP in Battlegrounds. This can be dealt with easily by changing out Spell Damage jewelry enchantments to Magicka Recovery, Stamina Recovery or Prismatic Recovery enchantments depending on the build.

Your build can also change depending on the (premade) group you’re in. For example, if you are with a Templar in a group it’s ideal to stack Spell Damage rather than Weapon Damage, since the Templar will provide you with Minor Sorcery. Likewise, grouping with Dragonknights means it’s best to stack Weapon Damage. 

Since racial passives have also been hybridized, the differences between the races became smaller. Every build mentions several races that are optimal for it, but that does not mean other races will not work. If you make up for the difference in racial passive with enchantments and you do not miss out on other parts of the build, the effect of the suboptimal race is barely noticeable. For example, it is best to use more Spell Damage enchants on a Breton compared to a High Elf.

Note that you can find the ingredients for any potion or poison using this site: UESP Alchemy Calculator. Here’s a list of the most commonly used potions and poisons in PvP and their ingredients:

• Essence of Health: Health + Stamina + Magicka (aka. tripots): Columbine + Mountain Flower + Lady’s Smock
• Essence of Health: Health + Physical Resistance + Spell Resistance (aka. armor potions): Mountain Flower + Mudcrab Chitin + Bugloss
• Essence of Health: Magicka + Stamina + Minor Heroism (aka. expensive tripots): Columbine + Dragon’s Blood + Dragon Rheum
• Essence of Immovability (Magicka + Immovability + Spell Crit): Columbine + Namira’s Rot + Lady’s Smock
• Essence of Immovability (Stamina + Immovability + Weapon Crit): Columbine + Dragonthorn + Wormwood
• Essence of Spell Power (aka. spell power pots): Water Hyacinth + Lady’s Smock + Corn Flower
• Essence of Weapon Power: Water Hyacinth + Dragonthorn + Blessed Thistle

• Escapist’s Poison: Namira’s Rot + Columbine + Wormwood
• Double DoT Poison: Nightshade + Nirnroot + Fleshfly Larva

An important part of many builds is status effects. Each type of damage has its own status effect as listed below. Every status effect deals a small amount of initial damage and applies a debuff on the enemy.

• Magic (Overcharged): Minor Magickasteal (attackers restore 168 Magicka every 1 second when damaging the target)
• Fire (Burning): Small DoT
• Frost (Chilled): Minor Maim (- 5% Damage Done)
• Shock (Concussed): Minor Vulnerability (+ 5% Damage Taken)
• Physical (Sundered): Minor Breach (-2974 Spell & Physical Resistance)
• Poison (Poisoned): Small DoT
• Bleed (Hemorrhaging): Minor Mangle (-10% Maximum Health)
• Disease (Diseased): Minor Defile (-5% Healing Recieved)

The debuffs last 4 seconds. This duration can be increased with the Serpent’s Disdain set, and you can decrease the duration of status effect debuffs applied to you with the Mystic Tenacity CP passive. Depending on their type, abilities have a chance to proc these status effects on an enemy, as listed below.

• Weapon enchantments: 20%
• Single Target Direct Damage: 10%
• Area of Effect Direct Damage: 5%
• Single Target Damage over Time: 3%
• Area of Effect Damage over Time: 1%