End game gear problem - it's real!

[inoeth]

the problem i see is that the invater set is pure crap for most classes. if that was not the case, the gap would be much lower for sure.

[Teek]

It's always the same, people who have been playing for a few months think they should have the same equipment as those who have been playing for years. I've been playing on this server since day one, like many others, and I've earned every part, no matter how long it took. if you want to have equipment thrown at, play, wow or gw2 .....

Im sure many have and will continue to. Careful what you wish for... I wonder what Sc ranked and rvr would look like with half the pop.

[bossabe]

It's always the same, people who have been playing for a few months think they should have the same equipment as those who have been playing for years. I've been playing on this server since day one, like many others, and I've earned every part, no matter how long it took. if you want to have equipment thrown at, play, wow or gw2 .....

Im sure many have and will continue to. Careful what you wish for... I wonder what Sc ranked and rvr would look like with half the pop.

hahahaha , forgive him , some people do not really think before typing

[sighy]

Is there a gear gap? Yes, obviously and the devs to their credit have worked toward making catching up easier. There was a time, when Vanq cost an arm and a leg, when you couldn't get Invader/Sov outside of their respective instances and got fewer of them, at that. Is the system perfect? Hell no, especially when talking about city instances.

Ultimately i would say that progression past Sovereign's release is a catch22, where the gear is either **** and nobody wants it(Like the Ranked SC set) or it pushes toward a finite boundary of either surpassing previous gear or adding new cosmetic bling.(Like the Fortress Weapons)

Ultimately only real way to make horisontal rpogression work is through creating meaningful mechanical differences in gameply, which as far as i could gather from FaQs/forum activity of certain people is not really within the scope of this project.

[Teek]

It's always the same, people who have been playing for a few months think they should have the same equipment as those who have been playing for years. I've been playing on this server since day one, like many others, and I've earned every part, no matter how long it took. if you want to have equipment thrown at, play, wow or gw2 .....

Im sure many have and will continue to. Careful what you wish for... I wonder what Sc ranked and rvr would look like with half the pop.

hahahaha , forgive him , some people do not really think before typing

what am I missing? What didnt I think of? I dont get it..... Is that like a cool kid inside thing that requires a certain RR to understand? Do i need sov gear to qualify?

[Sulorie]

You think you would play better, if your enemies had the same gear as you?
Maybe it would be better to ask how to progress past 40 and what gear to aim for instead of making bold claims with the intention to change the system once more.

[grim78]

Okey, so many assume that my intentions behind these suggestions are too my own gain because I have just recently started playing, or something other. You assumptions are wrong. But, even though IF you had been correct, it still doesn’t make the end game gear system any better.
I will try and answer some post which tried to contribute to the thread:

@Starx
But would it die though? Many, if not most, are in full Sovereign gear and have they quit? And if they do, doesn’t that mean they would quit anyway when they’d gained their end game gear? There are many ways to reward players at end game, it doesn’t have to be armor or weapons. How about a realm wide buff to whoever wins City, or a vendor spawns in IC/Aldorf that sells nice stuff, which can vary from week to week?

As you said in your last paragraph, gear doesn’t have to be what makes PvP/RvR fun…

@Bowldancer
Yup, some people will not mind the gear grind, that’s how it goes. If you must have progression, you will end up quitting at one point anyway. But, for this game, long term, when new players enter T4 (I mean 40/40, not bolster) they will be at an disadvantage both skill-wise and gear-wise. Isn’t enough with just one disadvantage?

As for the Talisman suggestion: it doesn’t have to be Talismans. I just thought that would be the easiest way - The devs does not have to create new armor/weapon designs whenever they create new gear, and much easy to buff/nerf after release. PQch22 just proves to me that it works – player do them even after gaining the armor pieces.

@M0rw47h
Agreed.

@TreefAM
Compared to the other armor sets, Sovereign is off the scale OP.

@Ravezaar
PQch22 proves to me that people play them for talismans – players want good talismans, why not exploit that? But sure, maybe the current talisman system would need a minor overhaul before making them end game gear we would strive for.

As for Hunters Vale; we don’t know, so I can’t comment other than it would still not make our end game gear system good, fun or exiting.

@Zizzelfizz
I just had to comment, because it was quite funny that you would suggest those games to me, when we actually have theme park PvE gear grind in this game.

@Inoeth
That would help, but it would only be a small band aid on a gaping wound.

@Sighy
Agreed. The irony is, back when Vanq was expensive, it was still better than it is today because the gear gap was smaller.

Lastly:
I want to make clear that I do not want to quicken progression or make it easier to reach 100% end game gear potential. I want most players to reach 90% of total gear potential “quickly” and then strive for the last 10%. Right now, most players (newer players) reach 50% “quickly” and strive for the last 50%. It is not healthy for the game long term. Did that make sense?

[Starx]

@Starx
But would it die though? Many, if not most, are in full Sovereign gear and have they quit? And if they do, doesn’t that mean they would quit anyway when they’d gained their end game gear? There are many ways to reward players at end game, it doesn’t have to be armor or weapons. How about a realm wide buff to whoever wins City, or a vendor spawns in IC/Aldorf that sells nice stuff, which can vary from week to week?

As you said in your last paragraph, gear doesn’t have to be what makes PvP/RvR fun…

What I also said in that last paragraph is that the difference at least from my perspective in NA time there was a reason to log onto your best geared character go out and fight other guilds in scens or warbands in RvR. Scenarios have completely died in competitive terms, organized 6v6 at least in NA for the past few years was just us and one or 2 guilds, EU was much more healthy obviously. But I was always in favor of large scale warbands and rvr.

The game had a big resurgence with lazy peon video, it was fun going out and hunting people like etup and hotshot etc... but lately it's just been really dull and I dont find it enjoyable to play on my characters that are full sov 80+, and I also dont find it fun to play on my lowbies and just casually pug around.

Maybe its a NA specific problem, or just me idk.

RvR also has some extremely huge design flaws that have existed for a long time, mainly how hard it is to attack keeps and forts. My guild for the longest time had an unwritten rule to never attack keeps because it wasn't fun, it's tedious keeping a ram up defending your flanks, dealing with all the rdps on walls, the canons hitting you for 2k a tick, the oil... and frankly in terms of reward in RR and bags it's just better to defend, its easier there's more action less punishment for dying, Doing scs while the realm attacked keeps is also more lucrative RR and 100x more fun. And of course people will say thats ***** logic blah blah blah as they send 20 guys with a ram to beat on a door for 10 minutes only for some organized group to finally decided to zone in and wipe them out in 30 seconds. It's just kind of sucked the fun out of the game for me in terms of open RvR.

And that's not even getting into the rewards system and how it doesn't matter who wins or loses ultimately we get out bags in the zone, we get our fort defense bags, and we get the same loot in altdorf as we do in IC. Even more reason attacking and dealing with all that is just a losing game. There's no stakes, idc if my realm pushes to city or not, we can lose and I can get into my own 24v24 instance and get sov. And hell I got full sov on my DPS AM solo que into a 90% lose rate city bc I could game the contribution system with warband lifetaps and win gold bags. And on destro if you que as a 12+ man organized group you are 90% of the time going to face an order warband with 3 healers and 10 witchhunters for free wins.

[Flowson]

Theres a simple calculation we have to take into account when talking about "Gear Problems"

The Difference Between Anhilator (rr40) and full Sov (rr80+) is around 40% better stats incl Resistance.

Is that a Disadvantage for those who dont have it? Advantage - Disadvantage . Yes there is a 40% disadvantage once you get startet at lvl 40.

Why is that?

There are people who say, i workek years for my Sov Set to come and i claim this 40% bonus to be my god given benefit as long time player.

There are others who say, i just finish lvl 40 and cant compete because my gear is 40 % weaker.

The Question is: If everyone has the same gear, will this improove overall Ballance in general?

Yes. because if everyone has the same gear. its up to teamplay and expierence in terms of how and when to use what skill in battle, instead of relying on the extra stats.

This leads us to the main question: Is this intended by the game mechanic? No. It is not. Its a "lvl up to gain reknown" mechanic. Nothing more, or less.

Thats why long players won't be satisfied with just "special appearnce items without any bonus stat"s. People love their bonus, because they worked for.

Keep in Mind: This is not Guild Wars - or "SoloWars".

If you want to compete at equal gear - get the highest gear , once youre haveing full Sov . ure on the same level as the long time players - which means theres no end game gear problem.


Thats how the RoR Long time reward system works.

[Sulorie]

There is in fact a gap of knowledge how to progress gear wise. Nobody else, who knows what to do or what to wear best, struggles when ranking up a new twink. They all are low lvl with that char at some point but it doesn't matter. If there is some inherent barrier with no way to overcome, then this wouldn't be possible and nobody would make new chars. Having a guild and regular group to play with only increases the progression speed.
People are not farmed by high geared enemies because of gear gaps, it's because they put themselves into a position, where they are easily killed.
Will a better geared char kill you, if they know what to do? Yes of course.
Is it your responsibility to avoid getting in such a position in the first place by playing to your best ability? Yes.