footpatrol2 wrote:Gate your also making the assumption that the guard mechanic is a major reason for the drop in population numbers on the server.
I think you are wrong in this assumption. (my opinion)
There are many many reasons on why there has been a drop in population numbers and I don't think a major reason for that is the guard mechanic.
Like I have said numerous times. When I bring NA players to this game to play with me, after they quit, I ask why. Usually it involves several bad experiences where they log in NA prime time, with very low population. They que for SCs, sit around for 20 min for 1 pop, then they get into an SC, and gte facerolled while they watch 5 tanks in that SC NOT use guard.
I have TWO friends in the last 2 weeks who have quit. A WE/Sorc player and a Mara.
When we coorindate play times, ROR has some of the most fun pvp. When we cannot all play at the same time, they cannot get tanks to guard them to save their lives, and ROR has some of the worst PVP if you are in that situation.
I know there are many other factors that lead to people leaving. I can tell you that is ONE reason I quit a year ago. I got my Chosen fully geared. Played a Mara, never got guard, got nuked in RVR and SCs, since I play NA time had a VERY hard time finding a group of guys who would consistently be on and willing to guard. Got bored. Quit.
Now ONE aspect of that was that I geared out my main and was bored on him so I rolled an alt. But I can tell you, I had a BLAST leveling the Mara and didnt have much issues until around T3 where the increase in damage classes start to get, which creates a TON of burst damage, coupled with tanks not using guard consistently.... It wasnt fun.
ROR is a great game for coordinated PVP. If you are a casual or semi-casual player, especially in NA time, and you want to get on for 20-30 min and just have some fun... you likely wont have fun unless you are plugged into a big group of players who all play during the same time you do, and you can say "hey anyone up for SCs" and get 10 people that all msg you saying lets make a group. Or if you have good group of guys who always log in and play with you... Then it can be a ton of fun.
There is a HUGE population, that are casual/semi-casual and I guess I have answered my own question I posed to Magicthighs over a year ago. "What is the target audience of ROR".... Reading the responses in this thread. This game is catering and targeting the "hard touch" only players who are under the impression that just because you dont have a group to play with, that means you are bad and dont understand the mechanics of WAR/ROR.
So at this point, there is no desire for me to continue to try and talk about this, DEVs are close minded towards making this a better game for all players. The player base is close minded to any changes from Live, and its very obvious to me now, that people dont want change, they just want to relive LIVE days for a while, when they get bored they take their group of friends, swap to the other side, level new characters, that will suffice for the "core" of ROR players for likely a while, but this server (unfortunately) will never have a much larger player base - which it could have - if some of the mechanics were made so that "group play" wasnt the only way to play the game.
Guard is at the core of combat. It is likely the #1 biggest advantage I see premade groups have over PUG groups. The 2nd would be how many healers are there - which you cant address that.
I have 4 tanks: Knight/SM/Chosen/BG and play them all extensively and center my character around guard. I know how it works, I know how to use it in both PUG groups, premade SCs and RVR. Its not a "hard" mechanic but its not FUN and from my experience, it is ONE reason players have left the game and will continue to do so - because this game can only be reliably played with a group of people, which makes your "fun" subject to "if you can get other people to play AND do their job" - of which, sometimes people find that job boring - which is why you see so many tanks in PUG SCs and PUG Warbands NOT using guard. Not because they dont know HOW to use it, but because its not their idea of FUN. Its not my idea of FUN either, and I love tanks. The IDEA of "mitigating damage for your party" is what a tanks job should be, of which, out of the tanks entire "kit" too much of their job revolves around 1 boring/passive mechanic that forces the tank to follow a person around like a "guard dog" rather than what "tanking" involves in MOST other games - a front line "damage sponge" who buffs/debuffs/controls and mitigates damage for his PARTY.
This is the last I will post of this. Since its clear that this will never change.
People don't want play tank because they MUST guard and die...Maybe in premade this ability work fine but not in pug games. Getting invectives or all the time remind about guard is not fun and don't make more tanks and much balanced/friendly game.