NoRKaLKiLLa wrote: Thu Jun 07, 2018 7:14 pm
What change would be required to be made, in your opinion, to have you as a player (who doesn't normally join a warband) join or form a guild, establish voice communications, respec to optimize your warband composition and fight in RvR .
I know is asking a lot, but please keep responses free of spiteful complaints and unrealistic requests.
The lack of competitive, large-scale RvR is the reason why I haven't been able to invest in RoR the way I did AoR. I would love to see tens of guilds on each faction again, fielding multiple warbands each, battling tooth and nail every weekend for a shot at a city siege; I can play other games for far better PvP of all kinds, but for RvR, nothing came close to WAR. There is no more glorious sight than seeing your Bright Wizards and Slayers crash into a "zerg" and obliterate them. Seeing your tanks barely holding the line against an ocean of Destruction, foaming at the mouth for the kill. Powerful, chaotic magic, hordes of players fighting and dying in the thousands, glorious victories won with a handful of your guys left standing; it was the Warhammer tabletop game I loved, realized into an MMORPG. The fights we used to have on Vaul's Anvil could have rivaled E.V.E.'s someday, and it would be wonderful to have this server thrive in such a manner.
However, I believe that such a culture is no longer possible in the modern gaming era, the primary reason being the mindset of the average gamer today (not just MMO player); there's a real lack of competitiveness, an inability to conceptualize a larger culture to invest in and sacrifice to, and this pervasive, extreme casualness where they put next to no effort into the game (learning their class, taking on social responsibilities, etc.). I don't know how to change the mindset, or whether its even possible now that's so widespread.
There are a number of systemic issues on RoR that also contribute to my lack of interest and the prevention of that old culture from forming:
-AoE Target Limit/Reduction Of AoE Damage: This is the same criticism I, and all of my old guild, had with Mythic; if you take away the player's ability to combat "zerg"s, then don't be shocked when they become the dominant meta. For awhile, I took people's complaining of "zerg"s as whining, but the more I looked under the hood, the more I realized that while their premises were wrong, the conclusion was correct. Take a look at the Target Limit: if a 6-man jumps and bombs a 12-man, they can kill 9 players in the initial jump, rendering the opposing force to 50% of their current strength. Not bad, but what about in larger fights? If a 12-man jumps and bombs a 24-man, they can only bring it down to 15 players ideally, meaning they are still significantly outnumbered when their momentum wears off (and then have to contend with the morale game). If your group plays well, and the opponent makes some mistakes, you could win that fight. However, what about at the warband level? If a 24-man jumps a 48-man, they can only bring them down to 35, still nearly a 50% larger force than their own. At warband-levels of play, the target limit is a massive, massive nerf to an organized warband's capability.
-The Morale Game: Morales, again like AoR, became dominant because it became impossible to contend with larger forces or dislodge an entrenched enemy without them. With the morale gain nerf here, the morale meta now heavily favors Destruction because they have the only AoE morale pump and the only AoE morale drain in the game. In addition, the Zealot's morale gain tactic allows them to acquire FM faster, to be able to better combat heavy damage loads; and Chosen & Black Orc's morale on block tactics allow them to build to Raze much, much faster than Order.
-The Disrupt Changes: This is a big one, and the only reason its not being talked about is because there's little organized warband play here. Against a decent warband, where tanks are using HtL well and members are spec'd for Deft Defender, magical rdps can not bring substantial pressure on an opposing force. The Magus can kind of get around this by cheesing it with Firestorm, but that's it. Even a well-geared BW/Sorc will have trouble bringing the thunder in that environment.
-Lack of Cities: Without an overall-arching goal, the campaign becomes a matter of people locking zones for loot and renown, not for anything greater. Without a challenging goal to push for, there's nothing bonding large guilds together, except the personal relationships. Why put in all that effort organizing, training, and fighting when you can just pug-surf and achieve the same results?
-The Current ORvR System: Unless a defending force has 80 - 100% AAO, you are not taking that zone, and that's for pug warbands. An organized warband defending a keep? You aren't taking it; the Lord is simply too big of a factor, the AoE is too powerful an advantage, the Terminate too buggy, and the 3rd floor defense meta is impenetrable because of the AoE target limit and the size of the ramp. And even if you managed to take the keep somehow, you'd then have to spread your forces over 4 objectives, while the defending force only has to split over 2. Good **** luck.
