Spoiler:
wonshot wrote: ↑Sun Jan 24, 2021 5:24 pm Hi community,
this post is simply to share my personal point of view after been mainly on Order-realm in my time on RoR. I will try my best to keep my BIAS in check but im sure some of it will overflow.
As of right now, and honestly for a good 60% of my time on the server the Destro-realm have had some sort of numbers advantage population vice. it usually swings over to Order in periods but with City grind introduced we are probably seeing the biggest extreme of Destro dominance and it is probably unlikely to change unless a guild swap over, as we have seen in the past. To try and even out the population.
My last big topic I asked the question "why is Order the way it is?" some of it gave me new perspectives to hear what others think but now ill try to give just my own take on what has put Order in this possition.
[Background]
Started as a nolstralgic solo player, made a BW called Wonshot and ran around in scenarios doing timestamp. Got bored and quit. Rejoined the server with Deep And Dry project lead by Sacrx, renamed and geared up in the conq era. Refound interest in the game when i got involved in largescale guild warfare again, after the guild had been on break since GW2 days. Renamed to Bombling and embrased what I think this game does better than other pvp mmos, largescale! Over time the guild lost interest in the server, New world and other distractions came on the radar. Since then ive been part of some very nice groups & guilds and i think all of them have had the same in common they have been striving to be competitive warband guilds. (VII on order pre citylaunch, TC, LBL)
Over the years those guilds are no more for different reasons, but they all have the same in common they could compete and they all struggled to recruit people from Order due to lack of interest as a whole from the realm.
During different timeperiodes of RoR some Destro controversial abilities have been labled as overperforming and almost everytime have I went to destro on my own to test firsthand and see if i agree with the complaints. First the DPS zealot with Winds of insanity, then the invadergear on choppa/slayer after forts were added while testing Gettothechoppa and now im testing the MSH.
Both realms have their own issues and strong suits. But after ive pushed the pve grind and almost done with Royal sets on one char on both realms i think ill share my findings on some areas that really stood out to me.
[Lookingforgroup channel]
On destro side the LFG channel is actually active in hours where there are no Citysieges. You have rare PQ22 raids for pugs, daily City-dungeon pve runs, scenario lowtier groups, and T4 scenario groups during weekend warfront.
On Order there are way fewer pve runs, full stop. PQ22 have I only seen done succesfully with LFG lead by Fenryl. There are some lower tier scenario groups, and same for warfront pug 2-2-2 but again at a way lower rate than on destro lfg channel.
[PVE]
Since Gunbad and Bastion are the same, there shouldnt be too much of a difference.
City dungeons have been a shock to me. On destro every encounter can be boiled down to "dont stand in puddles, kill adds" and maybe the end bosses have a 3rd mechanic that can be soloed handled by the tank moving the boss around. Destro speedruns take about 1/3 less time and even pugs are running with 1tank 3dps.
On Order city dungeons the encounters most guilds cant even succesfully run 1tank speedruns, I've heard of guildies failing 2-2-2 city dungeon attemps due to mechanic misunderstandings. With the archtype imballance on Order not only are these pve runs more rare to get going but they also seem to be more difficult for a pug group. (Tested and gave feedback on these prerelease with Deep And Dry group and maybe we gave feedback that were to match interesting pve encounters, instead of a pugfriendly speedrun contest that destro pve turned into being)
[Endgame pvp]
Both realms can compete and succeed! And I mean that, but for Order they need to fill their setups first. Finding that last tank spot can be an issue with 4 other warbands are also looking for a few tanks to finish their setup. We probably all know the differences for pugging citysiges on the two realms, order get pops destro might not, order have imballance between their archtypes destro seem to have a better spread etc etc etc.
When Order has 8-8-8 setup they can compete and it comes down to leadership, executing the fights and experience. As long as the meta is following in the footsteps of Live Citysieges:
- Everyone bring full aoe
- Some people start bringing a singletarget group and 3 aoe groups
- Everyone bring 1st 3aoe
- Some start bringing 2st 2aoe
As long as there are singletarget viability and Timetokill is not insane then every career can be invited for both realms, as there are room for having WHs and other none aoe specs as long as the players know how to play their class for End-Game-Content. Meaning you might face discord guild-only enemies so you need to match their level of involvement.
[Scenarios]
Imbalance between Order archtypes will often lead to no tanks in scenarios, as the tanks are not enjoying trying to guard and protect all the solo Rangeddps kiting and being all over the place. When the tanks stop attending then the MPDS become unhappy unless they are prenerf Whilelions and can solo, so we start seeing slayers unable to get involved and mdps running around looking for outskirt fights.
Any scenario can upset this issue by having a gear or skill(experience) difference, and at times you will find no healers or lack of tanks on destro too in pug scenarios.
Again the common factor is that setup plays a really big part as the very first step.
Ranked can be cheesed by players with synergy queueing together into the same matches when its suposed to be a SoloQ. It is an issue of too low population but every career on the serve seem to have atleast one skilled enough player out there who can be succesful on their class in ranked 2-2-2 scenarios.
[conclusion]
Order as a realm did for some reason end up being "harder" to pug on, compared to destro. The archtype imbalance would by my guess as to why.
Good balanced setups can win on both sides, both realms have their winconditions and different playstyles over the other realm and this is natural when its a none mirrored game.
I dont think this cultural change will come from the Devs, I can't see how they would even attempt to tacle this issue on Order. It needs to come from within.
So for any order pug player out there, know that there is hope. But it takes effort. Look to your realmmates, join groups guild and alliances with good setups.
There are plenty of guilds out there who are dieing to get new blood and help them fill out their rosters and most of their approach are nothing more than setting up a playdate 2hours two times a week and listen on a discord channel while you get to guard people near you, heal allies who are not out of range and you dont get to solo heal a party. Sounds lovely doesnt it?
Nothing about this situation will change from the outside, it starts with YOU Order-realm and it is long overdue.
One point you forgot ofc which is in fact more difficult on order is to build something up from 0.
The guilds which were successful on order had all something in common (phalanx order, tup order, LMN, DND), a strong core of players who mostly know how to play and wanted to achieve something.
So with that being sad, it's harder to keep ppl motivated if you start from scratch.
If PvE takes 10 minutes more, or a flavour of the month class got buffed is just a nuance in the bigger picture imo.
Besides that there was always something found in this game which was / is exploitable or very strong for largescale. (old SH M2, WW bombing when destro had no mirror, SS spam and so on)
It's just about time, theorycrafting, trial and error and detication to find such a loophole.