That’s a really tough question. I have not been back inside for quite some time and when I do play PvP I just solo roam in Cyrodiil. I’ve been moderating my gameplay time though because my family did an “intervention.” :) Lately I’ve actually been messing around casually in the new Orsinium DLC mostly.
That said, here are my thoughts and what I have heard from others as well. All of this is for the NA server.
PvP in general is having a rough time with lag especially Cyrodiil around peak playing times. The devs have made fixing/addressing this a top priority. At least that’s what they have communicated. The problem seems to be a combination of gameplay incentives to group up into large “zerg balls” and combat mechanics that place large loads on the servers to process the data for everything from LOS to AOE effect checks. You could write a dissertation on the whole topic I’m sure. The PvP is glorious when the ping is below 150 (for me at least). When two big guilds stack on a flag at a keep or the last keep to dethrone an emperor is being contested by all three sides then things (lag) get silly and not much fun.
But to answer your question, from what I can tell Imperial City is pretty dead right now. That’s what I have heard at least. I did have a decent time when it first came out but that was just because I was grinding for my new gear and levels so I could be competitive in PvP.
So as much as I love this game, it was a real missed opportunity and as far as pvp goes it doesn’t add much. The original idea was that each faction would have to capture a certain number of keeps to unlock access to the IC. This would mean that factions with access could flood into the IC and then reap the rewards of being able to do the PvE content (gear, loot, quests etc). The factions that no longer had access would have players trapped inside and they would have to be cleared out. This would mean lots of ganking and small scale pvp, cat and mouse type stuff. The brilliant part is that back in Cryodiil the factions that were locked out would now have numbers and incentive to go take back keeps and restrict the access for the faction that currently controlled the entrance to the IC. A beautiful negative feedback loop.
So all those dynamics were lost and instead everybody could just stroll into the IC. Soon the zergs were running around through the sewers and the top side districts. Lag was never really as bad as Cyrodiil proper I think because there were no flags at keeps to stack on and the IC has separate server resources I am pretty sure. But the different factions each sought out and built their own “buff” servers and population balances were generally terrible except on one campaign (same thing happens with Cyrodiil to be fair).
The second big problem is that the top side districts were originally supposed to be capture-able by the factions but this was not developed or abandoned so fighting up there became like Call of Duty tag. You could die right below your spawn point and then respawn and jumb back down from your platform and go right back at it. It was and is still mindless and sad.
I understand the logic behind a lot of their decisions to basically “dumb” the IC down. They were most likely worried that their first DLC was going to put off a lot of PvE players and there were a lot of care bear tears. One infamous thread on their forums seems to have precipitated a last minute design change decision. There were ridiculous threats of lawsuits from players who claimed that it was not legal for ZoS to sell the dlc and then not grant instant access to it. Having to actually earn access by performing in game actions was some type of consumer rights violation.
So the short answer is sadly I wouldn’t bother with IC unless you just want to get the achievements, do the quests and see the sights. For the record, the IC is awesome from a design stand point. Architecture is great. The quests are cool but I found some of them hard to do solo. The loot is ok. ESO has a big problem with their RNG and bind on pick up items but that’s another topic.
My fervent hope is that they go back and gate the IC for all campaigns, buff up the gear drops and incentives to be in there, and implement some type of faction control system with buff rewards for the districts up top. Get rid of the respawn platforms and only allow respawn for factions which have won access by controlling the required number of keeps in Cryodiil. You could breath some new life into it and get a proper darkness falls type experience which I think from a design stand point is a really cool concept.
Probably more than you wanted to know :)
