Thinking of Returning with Guild, Questions Please

[OldReturner]

Hello

Played at release, some questions for me and my guild please:

1. Server active in PvP? Where - just battlegrounds, open world, keeps?
2. How long to max level/be competitive?
3. How much PvE is required to get into the action and be competitive?
4. PvP fun and balanced or broken?

What we dont want is an endless grind of PvE to PvP.

It looks like Order is seriously outmanned, can a new Order guild help stem the tide?

Any information on the current state of the game is appreciated, thanks.

[Gurf]

Levelling is much much quicker than live, you can level exclusively in pvp no problem and quite quickly.

There is a lot of fun to be had in pvp in the open lakes if you are organised , could take a while to match the better destro guilds who have top gear and all play the best classes but that's the challenge.

At the moment destro have the numbers by a long way, but a month ago Order dominated so it could swing back, but if you ever want the end game pvp gear you will need to roll Order to get guaranteed city instance chance. Rolling destro at the moment you are unlikely to get many good fights but on Order you can get loads if you are prepared to fight the Zerg.

In general pvp is roughly balanced and the devs are always trying to improve things, the balance favours destro in the end game city siege due to certain classes and abilities but the main problem with Order is that people play too many ranged classes like Engi and SW

[velenne]

1: This is an RvR game (realm vs realm, open world pvp with large-scale battles, sometimes hundreds of players). That's what you're really signing up for and any content other than that is secondary and, frankly, if you want anything other than RvR you're better off with other games. This game does one thing well and it's RvR and that's why the Lion's share of us are here.

2: you can jump in at levels 1-15 and have a great time, honestly. Many players just remake characters because low level play is so fun. Once you hit 16, you're thrown directly into the deep end with the big sharks and the game is more nuanced and more difficult. A bolster effect makes you viable in big groups, but the endgame is entirely about mitigation of the innumerable stuns/roots/pulls/snares/disables/silences/detaunts/disarms/debuffs which you can't access until later levels. That's the skill of the endgame, and what team composition is dictated by. To hit Max level (40; again if you're new) should be about 50 hours of gameplay depending on a few things. Even when you hit 40 though, you're not done. Many consider renown rank 60 or so to be approaching "endgame" and that's another 20-30 hours. You'd better have chosen the correct classes for the current meta because lemme tell you it's really hard to shelf a character you've sunk that much time into if you didn't, and it sucks to be excluded from endgame content (or just get curb stomped daily in endgame content) because you chose poorly. Do your research beforehand, because you will be mocked for not having done so if you show up to the endgame with an off-meta class.

3. You never have to touch a lick of PvE if you don't want to, and you can be on equal footing with those who do. The game is pretty cool like that actually.

4. It's mostly fun and balanced, outside of the city siege "endgame" instance which favors Destruction 60/40 on a by-instance basis (which leads to an 80% City Capitol win rate overall).

If you have the mental fortitude to handle losing for awhile, roll Order. The population most of the day heavily favors Destruction and in a game of open battlefields, having more bodies in the field is a big advantage. Recent changes to keep siege mechanics have made it moreso.

[losvtranse]

1. There is always some pvp action happening. It's divided into 2 categories mostly: RvR (kind of "open world", but within a certain very large zone, with keeps and objectives and a long-standing goal) and Scenarios (like WoW's battlegrounds).

2. There is a thing - when you're pvp'ing your character's power get boosted ("bolster") to let you compete with other players of much higher level. There is 2 brackets for RvR : 1-15 lvl and 16-40. Obviously as leveling you don't have your whole class's toolset, however some say that bolster gives enough power that you may miss it at lvl40. And last one is true - when you hit lvl40 difficulty rises as now you're on the same stage against very geared players and no longer have raw power of bolster on your side. Grinding the gear can be rough for gear-dependent classes, but i would say it pretty much worth it.

3. You don't need PvE, but it certainly could lend you a hand in optimizing your BiS gear. I would say someone who done PvE has a slight edge over someone who didn't, but it isn't massive at all.

4. I't's certainly fun and unique, but it takes time to accustom to it. Balance is not around 1v1 situations, but about "composition" vs "comtosition", and Devs are always tuning the balance, however some classes are left in the dust by far by "meta" classes for the current endgame - Cities.

[TwistedSister77]

I'll just add to others. The home page lists the real time population of the server and the split between destro and order.

Usually order is around 48% and Destro 52%, but it can swing much more in rvr zones depending on time of day and what guilds/players are focusing on.

Order could definitely use some good coordinated guilds. Also, you'll never miss a city being on Order (not all destro get into city because of the pop imbalance).

[OldReturner]

Appreciate your replies thanks!