Oppression, day after day

[Topdude]

I know, another order complaining about realm balance. I've been playing this EMU since 2 weeks after live was killed. It's great what the devs have done and I continue to enjoy playing as much as possible.

But for the past (at least) two months I've been checking population on this site and also in game and it's painfully apparent to me that destro continually has bigger numbers. Lately I've been playing upwards of 10 hours a day over the past week. What I've seen is that order only has brief moments of experiencing greater populations, it's like Destro takes a lunch break or something, and then back to 60-200% aao.

Looking for a reason, wondering what can be done about it. Feeling it has to do with people preferring to play the dark side, and feeling it has to do with Destro careers being a bit OP atm. But, I also know that Order has a few problems.

First, I know most of the excellent WB leaders from a year ago aren't leading open WBs anymore. Tip of the hat to those that are leading these days, but most from a year ago were old players, very versed in the lake landscapes and focused on playing the zone mechanics. I don't know what has caused this but do know that some of these leaders have been called out in chats, which has gotten rather rude since the influx of new players happened.

Second, there's much more of a mentality of skirmishing rather than ranking and taking zones. Along with that is the solo mentality, the loss of playing as a group and the benefits that result by buffs and guards. Perhaps this is because of a drop in morale that order will have any success trying to build a zone when zergs of Destro will just zone in and squash us.

I only post these concerns because I feel that playing the zones, forts and city are integral to this game. It's RvR, not PvP that made this game epic when it was live and it's up to the devs and committed players to work to keep it that way. If I wanted to solo there are plenty of arena and other PvP games out there to play.

Anyway, just posting this to raise the topic, I don't see it discussed much, and to get others feelings about it.

Order pride!

[brocel]

As a goblin player, I just had the same thought at seeing 58% destro right now on servers. Honestly I just like greenskins so much that's why I play destro, I'd be fine if they were pitted against order and destruction, but the imbalance does tempt me to reroll in order. Outnumbering is just not fun for anyone.
I'm indeed wondering why this is the case. I know that I prefer the aesthetic of more destruction classes than order, I find the models and animations quite bland in a lot of Order classes (though I think it's an overall issue of the game, at least to my taste). (I really like the Tzeentch vibe to Chaos though, it gives a more original and unique aesthetic to the game, and is underrepresented in warhammer's products)

[wonshot]

Second, there's much more of a mentality of skirmishing rather than ranking and taking zones. Along with that is the solo mentality, the loss of playing as a group and the benefits that result by buffs and guards. Perhaps this is because of a drop in morale that order will have any success trying to build a zone when zergs of Destro will just zone in and squash us.

This is probably a direct result of more and more players reaching their Best in slot, or gear where they just want to actually battle and use this gear they have worked for.
If the siegeing and zonelocking were more fun, geared players would probably pay more attention to the campaign. But rushing 2 stars for you to then stand on your mount and watch four tanks play a ramming minigame is not have an organized guild want to spend their 2-3 hours of Guild event.

An as for the order population, since i lately have been researching if i would bother coming back to the server and playing it pretty hardcore again, it kinda shocked me how there are 3 alliances who pretty much have the exact same semi-hardcore approch and does the same thing. Those 3 could probably had been merged if there was an interest in making Order have an impact on the map, but that is not the case and all the more power to them for doing their own thing. Again, lack of campaign driven appeal.

[Sundowner]

Add good rewards for influence, like repeatable quests or something

[brocel]

This is probably a direct result of more and more players reaching their Best in slot, or gear where they just want to actually battle and use this gear they have worked for.
If the siegeing and zonelocking were more fun, geared players would probably pay more attention to the campaign. But rushing 2 stars for you to then stand on your mount and watch four tanks play a ramming minigame is not have an organized guild want to spend their 2-3 hours of Guild event.

Gotta admit that fortos are the least interesting bit of RvR

[RathBrand]

I agree that Order has been underpopulated compared to destro for the last few weeks and in general for the last few months outside of NA primetime.

However, I do feel that order has some good leaders and good guilds running and flipping and taking zones and keeps isn't as big an issue except for when the populations are way out of balance. I would say it seems like destro has more skirmishers. When I play on my destro character, it feels like a much bigger struggle to find organized warbands to join and an overall lack of coordination.

I sometimes hear from others that play both sides that the destro toons are more fun, especially tanks and melee dps, but also classes like shaman. Plus with the recent Squig Herder buffs, there are probably a lot of people checking that out. And order, as has been the case for a long time, is usually lacking in tanks, melee dps, and healers.

I wish people would switch to the side with the lower pop to help balance things out, but outside of the AAO bump, there isn't much incentive for people to do that. It isn't much fun playing on Sundays with Warhost vs Vanguard numbers.

[PlagueMonk]

I agree that Order has been underpopulated compared to destro for the last few weeks and in general for the last few months outside of NA primetime.

However, I do feel that order has some good leaders and good guilds running and flipping and taking zones and keeps isn't as big an issue except for when the populations are way out of balance. I would say it seems like destro has more skirmishers. When I play on my destro character, it feels like a much bigger struggle to find organized warbands to join and an overall lack of coordination.

I sometimes hear from others that play both sides that the destro toons are more fun, especially tanks and melee dps, but also classes like shaman. Plus with the recent Squig Herder buffs, there are probably a lot of people checking that out. And order, as has been the case for a long time, is usually lacking in tanks, melee dps, and healers.

I wish people would switch to the side with the lower pop to help balance things out, but outside of the AAO bump, there isn't much incentive for people to do that. It isn't much fun playing on Sundays with Warhost vs Vanguard numbers.

It's not just that the Dest classes are funner to play, they are in most cases BETTER (which in turn makes them funner) add to that Dest classes synergize better and it's no wonder people are flipping over to Dest. Hell even most of my guild (including my guild leader) were playing Dest most of last week and all weekend for the 2x exp. What I have heard across the board was the Dest counterparts were a better/stronger class (which I have been hearing the more I talk with Xrealmers). I am 100% Order but it gets discouraging when you continue to see the opposition getting buffs (holy crap OPed SHs) while the Order classes are either neglected (like the IB) or just nerfed for no reason (most recent was the WL pounce debacle)

Oh and beyond about 20%-40% AAO you are so severely outnumbered that the bump is meaningless because you are continually trounced.

And even with NA Primetime, the problem recently is NA Order is logging on to see most areas pushed in favor of Dest so we have to continually be on defense/Forts with little chance to push neutral zones in our favor. Hell once I logged on last week to see EVERY zone with at least a 100% AAO.

[lyncher12]

breaking news: having aao is bad

[oaliaen]

Put new gear on the store and you'll see order poping from everywhere ...

[NSKaneda]

I've noticed improvements on order side over the past few weeks. They started using their skills in game instead of forum, there's some coordination going and most of all order is slowly finding their neglected balls.

Sure, there are still talks of "the other side is better" on both factions but I'm beginning to see some even fights instead of hiding in camps and keeps and using forums to win a fight. Who knows, few more weeks without nerfs or rivers of salt and we might get actual engaging warfare