New player and low level experience

[GunsNChoppas]

At least your friends will have someone to invite them to the game and give them some advice.
Sadly this game is by veterans for veterans, no new player are really welcomed (or at least feeling welcomed).
Imagine being a solo new player in this server. Damn that's hard. I sometimes see how they're just being ghosted and ignored in advice chat when their questions aint deemed "relevant".
Like the guy asking for a new items in T1. The response he got: "No one cares about those low T1 items".
Guess what ? The guy leaves the game.
And many many many new guys I've met eventually left because they felt unwelcomed here. And I partially can understand this sentiment.
It will not improve because, like I said, this game is by veterans for veterans.
They know that a new guy will eventually burn out and leave hence they don't waste their efforts on them. Which only makes the new guys burn out faster.
The problem won't go away. You just need to deal with it - hump into guild bandwagon and try to juice some fun. Maybe roam with your friend as a little gank-squad.
But that's really is that.

[Hazmy]

I can speak for the Return of Reckoning Team here that we very much care for new players and the new player experience.

In fact Tier 1 has just been through a massive re-work that took a lot of time for the Developers working on it, and this work continues on in the following Tiers to smoothen the leveling experience through quests / armor sets and other aspects that new players interact with. It is far from being done.

Additionally, we frequently think about what kind of new events we can create to help new players catch-up and ease them into the core gameplay - sometimes this also means organizing large scale Tier 1 leveling events, where we ask the community to help and assist - not stomp new players if possible.

It's highly recommended to join the official RoR Discord in order to get as much assistance as possible, considering Warhammer Online is an old-school MMORPG where knowledge is power, way above skill - and the only way to gain that knowledge nowadays is through interaction with the community.
We always ask the community to be patient and kind with new players too, but retaining said new players is a shared responsibility of all of us.

[Loctar]

At least your friends will have someone to invite them to the game and give them some advice.
Sadly this game is by veterans for veterans, no new player are really welcomed (or at least feeling welcomed).
Imagine being a solo new player in this server. Damn that's hard. I sometimes see how they're just being ghosted and ignored in advice chat when their questions aint deemed "relevant".
Like the guy asking for a new items in T1. The response he got: "No one cares about those low T1 items".
Guess what ? The guy leaves the game.
And many many many new guys I've met eventually left because they felt unwelcomed here. And I partially can understand this sentiment.
It will not improve because, like I said, this game is by veterans for veterans.
They know that a new guy will eventually burn out and leave hence they don't waste their efforts on them. Which only makes the new guys burn out faster.
The problem won't go away. You just need to deal with it - hump into guild bandwagon and try to juice some fun. Maybe roam with your friend as a little gank-squad.
But that's really is that.

I disagree with that. Here since about 1 month or 2.
Found a lot of help, grouping IG. And if the IG chat is not that useful, I found several discord with great community. I think the vast majority of the player are 35yo+, maybe that is the reason.
This is really one of the best community I found in a game.

[Faction69]

I'm still a "new" player -, played live but only started RoR about 2 months ago.

It's not the Devs who kill things for new players, it's the veteran playerbase.

Full warbands will chase a level 16 solo in their first ever t4 rvr zone across the map to kill them for 2 renown.

Rr85 players will spam emote level 20s they kill.

People in maxed out gear will do anything to avoid an even fight even against sub 40s or low rr players.

Could go on for a long time. I thought about making a long thread about the new player experience, but so many veterans are incredibly defensive and totally unconcious of the fact that they actively drive new players - who they need - away. They are more interested in maintaining their advantages and stomping the revolving door of new players rather than growing the server. So why bother with the feedback? It'll just get angry replies from rr85 zergers who love to spend their nights chasing down level 24 squig herders with 23 friends.

If you want an example of this, say in general chat that bis premades shouldn't be put into scenarios without another pre-made on the other side. At least a half dozen people will immediately get super defensive of their right to farm conqueror geared solo queuers with a meta pre-made.

Many veterans simply live for pub stomping and actively try to avoid anything else. For them, the less even things are, the better.

[agemennon675]

I would like to point out when the currency unification happened getting low rr gear for new players and alts became way harder than before mostly because removal of gear/accessory pieces from bags. There is no need to gatekeep low rr pvp gear and accessories for new players, please reduce their cost drastically or return them to RvR bags.

[crusaderberlin83]

i seriously dont know how to play after t1 - i mostly never get open warbands and have to run solo into rvr , sc´s are mostly horrendous , cos of the really bad matchup balance (like no healer , vs 5 and stuff) makes me kinda sad , cos i really would love to go to 40 , but its really annoying.

[HammerGuy]

Unfortunately it's a grind that you have to put up with if you want the payoff at the end. It's not just to level 16, or 40, or even renown rank 60, but all the way to 80.

As a brand new player, you are a first-timer in prison with lifers. Join a gang (guild) or you're going to get picked on. Even in a gang you'll have a rough time, but at least you'll get to give the beatings from time to time. You can learn from the other inmates in your gang, and eventually you will figure out how it all works.

[othr]

Having been through t1 a few months as a completely new player I can say this about t1:

- bad balance, seriously OP healers in t1
- twinks, that ruins it for new players, it really does.

Despite it was more or less enjoyable, it did get worse though, then it got better lvl 35+ (now I was the OP one), then it got really bad at level 40, then it slowly started improving again. These lows and highs in enjoyment are pretty bad for overall population, I'm not sure how many give up before they actually attain a competitive edge and make friends but I would guess that a lot of new players give up once they hit 40. Having said that, T1, despite its many issues is probably where you can have the most fun without a massive time investment.

[Templa]

lil rant and some thoughts:
Early level experience was always all over the place. Over the years there where times where one faction did dominate heavily. I would be interested in seeing actual new player numbers and how many of these new members will stay in the game for a longer period of time gearing up to Invader/Warlord/Sov. The amount of Medals needed for low level armors should be greatly reduced, so the amount of Medals needed for actual good gear does not seem as daunting for new players when they see they need 1000s of medals für the BiS Armor. and they did just spend all their Medals in leveling gear to not get oneshot along the way. My though is that there are 2 groups who might start up RoR. Warhammer fans or old players of original AoR. People in either of those two groups will have a certain age at this point. MMORPG culture is getting older and dying out slowly. I like that we have a progressionsystem in RoR that respects timeinvestment because you have no other way to gain BiS Armor aside from playing maaaaaany hours. But the buildup to Endgame is rough. Really rough. I guess classbalancing has to be tuned immensly for low level to make sense (won't happen, i can ofc understand that, but is not helpful for new players )

Actual helpful stuff:
- New/low level players "HAVE" to put forward the initative to get help with buildpaths. There are guilds and guides everywhere. A lot of Dicords with helpful guides, build templates etc.
- You might want to look for a premade/guild to play with. Solo play is atrocious and i can't emphasise enough to not play PvP games ever alone. It's not logical to go into war alone unless it's a duel.
- From experience many guilds, especially smallscale or SC focused guilds are looking for skill rather than gear. Because most long year players have multiple characters with good gear on both factions and can compensate for you being a bit more squishy. So if you can present your skill you will have a rather easy time getting where you want to be. (What do i mean with skill: No unnessessary use of CC to give immunity. DPS does not pump their burst into a detaunted target. Tank guardswitch and punt "correct" targets. Healer dispel debuffs,...And do this consistently, because as always patience decreases the higher the skilllevel.)
- Pick up a job that generates Gold to be able to afford Talismans, Potions, Barriers, slowpots, etc. etc.

To summarize: Lvl-1-40 and RR 1-60ish is simply a chore. If you are not willing to be a punching bag for a few weeks, don't bother. If you bother, get a group to carry you, if you can't.....well......rip.

[Yaliskah]

Some say that balances are bad.

Lets imagine a game you have a 100% mirrored classes. I assume this game would be perfectly balanced.
But would it be still balanced when you enjoy solo roaming and you encounter a warband or an half group of good players ? When you are in a optimised group vs a blob ?
Even in a Sc, where the amount of player is the same, class distribution could change, and even this holy balance could be discussed.

Imho, balance are not that bad, whatever the faction you play. Slayer is mighty, but a slayer without a guard and and a heal, are not overperforming. A sorcerer even it is powerful is very squishy and can't do a lot if the character is controled, and so on...

This game is all about how you manage your group and classes synergies. Of course, some synergies are easier to find than other, and sometime it is not that obvious.

I'm maybe wrong, and my answer is probably not satisfying for a sorrowful mind, but I don't have in mind a multiplayer game where everyone agrees that it is balanced. Do you ?