Game is boring without double XP

[nocturnalguest]

You won't be crushed, man. Tanks can get Full Conqueror (rr45 gear) and be nearly as tanky as a Full Sov tank, its such a good set that a lot of tanks will go Conq into Sov to save crests. Healers can do the same with dungeon gear, either Vale Walker (comes from doing HV) or a mix of Sentinel (CnT) and Conq, and then Vanquisher (rr58). DPS have the hardest time, with Vanquisher (rr58) being the most relevant powerspike on 8 out of the 12 DPS in the game. And rr58 is like 1/3 of the way from rr1 to rr80.

Endgame gear is just fine tuning, ppl that argue against this are either lying or have absolutely no idea of what they are talking about, cuz its EASILY verifiable - just look at WB scoreboards from any guild, most of them are public on their Discords. A Choppa/Slayer/WL/Mara with 4 pieces of Vanquisher will do 80% of the dmg that a full BiS player of the same class will do, or more if he has better positioning.

Truth is most of the complains posted so far in this thread are from ppl that aren't willing to do the smallest effort to fix their own problems, or are straight up lying. They forget about the social aspect of MMOs.

"Premades make SCs impossible to play" - Yeah, its a team game, so make your own. A full bis Choppa with no Guard is just a dead Choppa.
"Ppl just hide in keeps in rvr" - Pretending that happens during EU is just a lie. It can happen in NA, because WB Leaders make or break oRvR. No good pugleaders online when you're playing? Then become one. I'm new to the game so that's exactly what i did, and the bar is so low i promise you its not hard. Use Warband Leader Helper (addon), make 2/2/2 comps (literally 80% of the battle right there) and be communicative, you'll wipe the floor with every bad pugleader out there that simply opens a WB and barely talk to their players. Sounds like too much work? There are other options: join a guild, or fill their WBs when they LFM in /5, or fill the WBs of the good pug leaders out there (its ez to spot, they make 2/2/2s).

Second that.
What bothers me tho is DPS gear progression breakpoints as you are pretty much stuck at rr58 with vanq gear level till rr78 (and even on slayer it makes very little sense to spend ~6k crests on invader while 5 sov pieces you need for BiS costs 7,6k and you'd want triumph pieces+ring for BiS too, yes, some toptier slayers do use invader in competetive city sieges still but they are skilled enough to negate huge cons of having 7k hp by positioning). Also yes, dmg is not dependant on gear that much, starting from vanq you are doing almost the same numbers as sov if you are a) positioning&moving properly b) time your GCDs well c) coordinate dmg with your group/wb. So BiS sov for DPS actually gives a) increased survivability that makes more room for doing mistakes and b) more crit which results in around ~10-15% more dmg then vanq in ideal conditions. For tanks&healers its more about renown points available then gear and what does differs insanely huge like day&night is 6v6 2h tanks having either bad gear of vanq level or BiS in rest of cases its all aint gamebreaking.

[Sulorie]

Been playing mostly PUG scenarios (because limited play time) and i cannot afford new gear sets even if i PvP 100% of the time. If i want decent gear progression, i need to farm PQ tokens (which ofcrouse means more XP i dont really even want because last thing i want to do is to hit 40 in this game and get slapped in the face when Bolster goes away)

You worry too much. T2-3 gear costs so few crests, you lose barely anything by picking the pvp sets (Vale-Walker, Redeye, Ruin, Sentinel, Beastlord). The only thing you might skip are a few weapon tiers and especially the rr39 weapon is unnecessary.
On healers and tanks you get the very decent T4 starter gear from pve, which will serve you well until quite a high rr.
It's always tougher on DD classes, especially as new player, with less chances to find groups and higher gear requirements.

[Martok]

The current system heavily punishes non-organized play so much...

Which is the intent of the current system. And the one before that and the one before that. However...

The leveling process is far easier now than ever in the history of the server and, although I believed the single currency system the incorrect approach for the attempt to solve the issue it was designed to solve, I do agree with the precept some aspect of the game should require some challenge. As in some time and effort required to achieve.

But I also advocate not worrying about it. Just play the game and everything else will follow in time. Conq/Opp/Vanq gear doesn't take long to acquire and provides all you need to be viable. Try and have fun playing a video game and all other considerations will take care of themselves.

[Talladego]

The current system heavily punishes non-organized play so much...

Which is the intent of the current system. And the one before that and the one before that. However...

There is a difference between rewarding team-play and punishing casual-play.
My point was that even once you have slogged through countless surrendered scenarios and finally reached rr80, you will have nowhere near enough crests so buy the gear appropriate for your hard-earned level. That doesn't seem right to me.

[shoelessHN]

The current system heavily punishes non-organized play so much...

Which is the intent of the current system. And the one before that and the one before that. However...

There is a difference between rewarding team-play and punishing casual-play.
My point was that even once you have slogged through countless surrendered scenarios and finally reached rr80, you will have nowhere near enough crests so buy the gear appropriate for your hard-earned level. That doesn't seem right to me.

That's because you're supposed to xrealm to the side with the higher pop and pve keeps for bags during the times when sc are not popping nonstop. Do that, and you too can get a fully geared 80 without any real effort at all.

[Nefarian78]

I wish 2x would be the standard. As of right now, anything that isn't optimal crest/hour is discarded because the gear grind is an oppressive abomination.

This game has turned from encouraging group vs group play to punishing it in favour of mindlessly farming keyboard-turning pugs to maximize crest gains.

24v24 Cities are dead, all of the better competitive guilds and players have stopped playing, Ranked is dead and buried. It's just sad.

[juzziex]

I think it's a good idea to give 2x, we started with some friends, but they are affraid when we'll reach lvl 40 that we gonna be crushed by everyone more geared than us.

You won't be crushed, man. Tanks can get Full Conqueror (rr45 gear) and be nearly as tanky as a Full Sov tank, its such a good set that a lot of tanks will go Conq into Sov to save crests. Healers can do the same with dungeon gear, either Vale Walker (comes from doing HV) or a mix of Sentinel (CnT) and Conq, and then Vanquisher (rr58). DPS have the hardest time, with Vanquisher (rr58) being the most relevant powerspike on 8 out of the 12 DPS in the game. And rr58 is like 1/3 of the way from rr1 to rr80.

Endgame gear is just fine tuning, ppl that argue against this are either lying or have absolutely no idea of what they are talking about, cuz its EASILY verifiable - just look at WB scoreboards from any guild, most of them are public on their Discords. A Choppa/Slayer/WL/Mara with 4 pieces of Vanquisher will do 80% of the dmg that a full BiS player of the same class will do, or more if he has better positioning.

Truth is most of the complains posted so far in this thread are from ppl that aren't willing to do the smallest effort to fix their own problems, or are straight up lying. They forget about the social aspect of MMOs.

"Premades make SCs impossible to play" - Yeah, its a team game, so make your own. A full bis Choppa with no Guard is just a dead Choppa.
"Ppl just hide in keeps in rvr" - Pretending that happens during EU is just a lie. It can happen in NA, because WB Leaders make or break oRvR. No good pugleaders online when you're playing? Then become one. I'm new to the game so that's exactly what i did, and the bar is so low i promise you its not hard. Use Warband Leader Helper (addon), make 2/2/2 comps (literally 80% of the battle right there) and be communicative, you'll wipe the floor with every bad pugleader out there that simply opens a WB and barely talk to their players. Sounds like too much work? There are other options: join a guild, or fill their WBs when they LFM in /5, or fill the WBs of the good pug leaders out there (its ez to spot, they make 2/2/2s).

The problem with premading SC is the same problem I had during my high warlord grind during the original release of classic wow, no idea how it was like on the rerelease. We used to just queue for WSG and AB which were 2 different warfronts. One person would hop in and check if there was an alliance premade inside and if so we would take the pop for the other BG and "monkey queue"out of that BG to mindlessly farm pugs for a few months to hit rr14, maybe to some this is fun gameplay but id rather just play dynasty warriors if I want to play an easy mode killing simulator.

Now in this game you can't monkey queue...however the matchmaking pretty much sets it up so that more or less the same gameplay loop is happening, if ranked 6v6 was popping id love to get in on that but currently how the game is played, solo play or 6 man kiting groups are about the only styles of gameplay that actually takes skill. The rest of the game is farming lesser geared pugs/running from higher geared premades and somehow this gameplay loop was temporarily dead during 2x exp. There were plenty of times the pugs wanted to cash in on the huge xp gains and fight back against pugs both in lakes and SCs and we got a whole lot more kills than usual and even won a few times. I remember one specific premade that we beat 3x in a row with the similar players in a pug and they seemingly stopped queueing.

[Martok]

This game has turned from encouraging group vs group play to punishing it in favour of mindlessly farming keyboard-turning pugs to maximize crest gains.

24v24 Cities are dead, all of the better competitive guilds and players have stopped playing, Ranked is dead and buried. It's just sad.

Feel better?

[Helwer]

I guess nearly everything was made people asked for... and there are still not more players. Easier to get renown, crests and gear as ever before and people are still complaining. Pitty.

Bring back royal crests from cities and invader from fort... THAT was a grind

[Talladego]

I guess nearly everything was made people asked for... and there are still not more players. Easier to get renown, crests and gear as ever before and people are still complaining. Pitty.

Except it it isn't easier, it is much slower in my experience (with 7 rr80+ mostly from before currency changes).
Maybe it is faster for premades and organised guild-warbands but for a casual recreational gamer geezer like me it has turned into a soul-crushing grind.