[Suggestion] Leveling from 16 to 31.

[BeautfulToad]

An actual T2 would be the solution to this problem.
They should give T2 to the lowbies, as it has always been intended. I understand why the later tiers have been merged back in the day, BUT:

• There are more players on the server now, than it has been before. I think when city sieges are coming online, it would be better to give high level players T3+T4+Forts+Cities, and include T2 in the lower bracket. We may have the numbers for it, and with cities and forts, that's a big enough playground alltogether for high levels.

So, I may be wrong with all this, but I think this would actually help.

It's player numbers in certain timezones thats an issue. Merging T1 and (half of?) T2 might be a solution, but anyone below 10 would get slaughtered.

I find level 24+ generally do well in scenarios and rvr. Tanks and healers are pretty much fine at level 16. It's low 16-21 dps that can struggle a bit, i find at least. Really, you need a tanky build as a level 16 slayer or choppa or you will die when someone breathes on you.

[Sulorie]

The moment you become rank 25 as choppa/slayer, with appropriate gear, you will be really strong. It was so fun to kill rank 40s.

[mursaat1337]

God no, not more xp than we already have. SC already give absurdly high xp. When you want to do pvp, make sc group, then queue times are faster and do rvr in the meantime.

this doesn't combat the fact that in certain NA times, t2-3 sc pops are far to none. even if they are "high xp gain", the ratio of time:sc does not justify the xp gain at times. best option for mid tier lvling is going to be the weekends for sure. going into a lake as mid tier to queue scs as solo/duo/group can sort of be a pain to find other mid tier players. not to mention you cannot queue up in a warband.

and of course as you suggested, making friends and join groups does ease the pain, but just a little bit. this is my experience after lvling 5+ toons and counting rr50-60s.

So having the option to play RVR in T2 for players between 16-30, would be a perfect solution for this problem. Without gaving to worry on getting steamrolled with RR50-60+ dudes every 2 minutes,

Lowlvls are not getting steamrolled because their rank. It's a lack of pvp experience and I don't mean rvr mechanics like keep ranking and stuff.
Many players don't use t1 to learn the basics of their class, either because pve grinding or questing or flag sitting, which luckily got changed.
When people leave t1 with lvl3 random drop jewels and some item slots empty, then those apparently don't dare to ask for help or just have no clue, that their gear is too poor to compete in pvp.

even if you have a group of mid tier players say a full 6 man mid tier, the difference in toolkit and rp's so so high to dmg mitigation, cc options, and heal thru put that it makes mid tier lvling in an rvr zone very dull and boring. even as BiS mid tier vsing small 2-3 man rr60's roaming still can feel like a "i have to do more for the same result" vibe. i wouldn't base all problems of mid tier leveling on user error but it can be a small factor. the skill cap of this game is not that hard, mostly based on reaction time (i swear there is a lot of sloths playing healers).

[BeautfulToad]

even if you have a group of mid tier players say a full 6 man mid tier, the difference in toolkit and rp's so so high to dmg mitigation, cc options, and heal thru put that it makes mid tier lvling in an rvr zone very dull and boring

Completely agree. As an example, Black Orc gets Big Slash at level 18 and shattering enchantments are only possible at level 22. A lot of the dps toons suffer very badly from this. By mid-20s most core abilities have been earned, and gameplay is vastly improved.

Not sure how to change anything, since it could make issues worse and the situation now is okay. I admit, a few extra levels on T1 would be interesting to test.

[sighy]

Well there is an inherent problem with the line of thinking that someone "needs to get better". If a lowbie meets a 40/?? WP, WH or a WL, for example they are dead no matter what they do. Even if they somehow have all the bis gear, for their level, with all the bis talis and pots.

SCs are unreliable at best, with queue times ranging from couple seconds to 3+ hours.

Reward from delivering supply is minimal, IF you don't get slaughtered by some 40/?? on the way, in which case you get nothing at all.

Warbands either don't have real leadership or decline low level character generally speaking. And making your own warband is rather difficult when nobody joins it.



That leaves us with the options of:
a) Get carried by some exceptionally kind souls
b) Slow and boring pve grind
c) Quit and wait until something changes or just quit, in case of new players.




By far the most straightforward solution would be to separate t4 into it's own tier again i think.

[wargrimnir]

Another one of these threads. Lots of problems, this is the best of a classic MMO cycle.
Start as a little fish, get gear, experience, and become the big fish. Hit R16, move on.
Start again as a little fish. Get gear, experience, and become the big fish. Hit 31, move on.
Start again as a little fish. Get gear, experience, and grind a couple months to be a big fish.
Dominate little fish, struggle against big fish. Zerg > Warband > 6man > duo > solo.

Pick where you want to live on the foodchain at any given time. This is at heart an old-school PvP MMO, that means by definition you're not swimming in fair waters. This is not a battle royale. This is not a shooter. The sides are not perfectly even, the classes are not perfectly mirrored, and adversity builds character.

The problem with multiple tiers instead of T1 > T4, is there isn't enough population to do T1 > T2 > T3 > T4. We messed with T2+T3 for a bit, and the results still weren't good. The added benefit of 12 additional zones to the T4 campaign actually does quite a lot of good when it comes to keep the game feeling fresh, and the push to a fort (eventually cities), really make it a significant campaign. Can you push a realm from T2 to a fort in one sitting? Yeah, but chances are you play more reasonably, and are a part of the war effort. Sometimes being rewarded by starting your day near a fort, sometimes getting your slog on and pushing the realm forward.

Since the early part of the game is over so fast (about 40 hours), there's no reason to give up a full 12 zones so you have your own playground for a couple dozen others to mess with. Classic T4 has a total of 9 zones. Mid tier should be bigger than end-game? The tough beans are, this way works best, so far. Reverting to something we've already tried with worse results isn't a path forward.

I personally think we should solidify the current T1 > T4 into permanence and start shuffling some abilities/tactics and the rate at which you acquire them to better fit the curve. However I'm one voice in a group of leads, that's a lot of work that I wouldn't personally be doing, and we're still building on the game in many many other ways.