Renown grind / War crests

[Legankras]

https://killboard.returnofreckoning.com ... 797/armory
Thats my slayer. I was able to get full sov and triumphring before hitting rr80.
And no... i dont run supplies just scs and alot of rvr.

[gersy]

New players might find it hard to get in dungeons though, and probably leveled "incorrectly" so hit 40/45 and are standing there with the armor equivalent of wet toilet paper getting shredded by anyone who's played more than a few months.

The fact that players have to get told to micromanage their RR to keep it a certain pace above their CR to not turn into 'wet toilet paper' as you call it when they ding 40, or being told not to spend crests on leveling gear, though, tells us precisely that something is direly wrong with both progression curves for new players though. Either CR is too fast and it could stand to be slowed down, or RR and crests in the casual/pug bucket is too slow and could stand to be sped up.

It isn't too fast unless you do too much pve or play too many losing SCs. The latter is a possible fix, but many experienced players who have the resources to be able to play just fine as a wet toilet paper at 40 like to spam SC and rush to 40 because it is efficient for them. That said there will always be a minmax way of gearing and progression so I don't think there is any issue of players being advised to level a certain way like minimizing pve or circumventing pvp sets by obtaining their pve equivalencies. As I said too if you read the rest of my post I'm definitely up for renown/crest reward increases on a game-wide scale and/or set cost adjustments. For the average guy, especially a new one, it can be a struggle for sure.

In general there needs to be more changes that increase player retention. While we are having some lately like the new tutorial dungeon and t1/t2 pve reworks, more on the pvp side must be done. More guides and resources are emerging lately thankfully, such as EnC warband guide and Uchoo's Order guide which can help new players a lot so they aren't so lost in a game with a steep learning curve. Out of all the new guys I encountered in mid tier while leveling alts this year, those who I spend hours tutoring, helping out and trying to retain, I am aware of only a single one who is still playing the game out of over 15+ I had in depth interactions with. Most don't get past the 30's, and those who do often quit shortly after hitting 40. There must be something done to help those players who stop before they even really get a chance to start.

[georgehabadasher]

The fact that it was worse in the past doesn't mean it's fine now. The grind isn't that bad for experienced players who 1) have the ability to join groups with other players in bis gear and get carried to decent pre-bis gear when they can start contributing and 2) have an extensive amount of game knowledge, but it's excruciating for a new player. Which is exactly why we see new players consistently drop out when they hit 40.

I didn't say it was fine now. My reply was mostly oriented towards him saying that "devs only listen to vets who want the game to be grindy" which is entirely untrue. I have suggested many times in many different places that gearing should be made easier. I've advocated in official channels several times to reduce the cost of entry sets 40 sets (conq, vanq, invader) to make gearing easier and make the fresh 40 experience for new players a little more bearable. All of what I said remains true still, a new player starting now has it much easier in the gearing department than one starting in years past, and the devs have continually made it easier to gear up.

As a newer player the biggest issues imo are knowledge and not yet having built a social network yet, i.e. joined a guild, found the right people to give them the right information about their class and build, people to play with in proper environments that lead to the grind being less frustrating, etc. I have spent many dozens of hours tutoring new players, writing guides, answering questions in advice chat and gameplay-advice and the like so I have observed many of the struggles, confusion and opinions of new players. For me what I see makes them quit is between a lack of knowledge/confusion of game mechanics and the fact they feel weak when they hit 40 and they don't know how to fix it. Fixing it for many classes is as simple as doing a bit of pve, since sets like sent/vw can be equipped as a fresh 40 and are equivalent, or stronger, than vanq in most cases. New players might find it hard to get in dungeons though, and probably leveled "incorrectly" so hit 40/45 and are standing there with the armor equivalent of wet toilet paper getting shredded by anyone who's played more than a few months.

Ideally I'd like to see conq, vanq, invader costs reduced by 15-33% and then tri/vic/warlord/sov also reduced by 10-25% with the ranked ring reduced by 50% as well. Numbers subject to change naturally, just ball parking there. I'd probably also reduce the RR requirements to equip conq and vanq by 3-5 levels from where they are now. And if not a change to the cost of sets, then an increase in gamewide renown and crest acquisition would be good too. The "stubborn vets" (lol) would probably see that as too much on top of all the other things they've done to make it easier to gear but from my perspective it would be a healthy change. Getting new players in a good set of gear asap after hitting 40 should help with player retention. Beyond that, the knowledge issue remains and unfortunately for many players if they don't meet the right people to lead them in the right direction then some may be lost to the overwhelmingly arcane nature of how this game works.

Sorry for misunderstanding you. I think that's a very accurate and concise analysis of the difficulties new players experience upon hitting T4. Agree with your solutions, too. Great post.

[Sinisterror]

Problem of both AoR and RoR was always that the game doesn't actually has an end game content, so it is replaced with renown/ crests grind, to give some reason to play.

Basically, the game is rpg, rpgs idea is about advancing your character, while once you are 80 with sov or whatever your setup is, realistically there is no way to advance your character = no actual reason to play. Extra bit of fun, is once you have 10 k or so of gold between your toons, gold becomes mostly worthless as well.

There was points where AoR actually had endgame content and it was City+Lotd Invading/Defending Tovl/Tombs (Btw this was THE LOTD everyone wanted back) and Colossus. Colossus was accessible to all who were in lotd even if you didnt participate you got to participate and had a chance of getting something super good like them insane talismans.

Timed City and only Weekend lotd... Super bad idea's Obviously. The insane way to get City siege as a realm like loggin on to your alts, playing lowbie sc's for Domination and then logging back to mains to have a Chance at Stage I and almost everyone had to win Stage I for there to be Stage II and III.

I dont want that lvl of "someone lost so we dont get to stage II & III " but I do want that if we win our instance We get to Stage II which was Warlord Gear and Warlord Lvl Wpns with Procs dropping in Purple bags + Warlord dropping From the gold bags. In Stage III you had to do the Mini Instance of like 5 Bosses that dropped Sovereign lvl (66dps 1h 99dps 2h) wpns with procs.

Then you had the chance to kill the king and get sovereign pieces. Also Every Set had BoE items dropping in Fights. But Those Purple Bag contents from Stage II and III and probably in stage I as well which would have been 60 dps wpns, same dps wpns that dropped in Lost Vale but different procs.

There needs to exist gear that wont drop anywhere else except that one place. It shouldnt be Sets but Proc Wpns/Universal Proc Cloaks that are different depending if you win attacking or if you succeed in Defending.

RoR has even dumbed down the Tier 4 Epic quest wpn procs i mean its insanity, if you "have" to restrict jewelry to any slot is so stupid. Why the RoR answer is always to remove and not replace or ADD something... Every char had rr38 influence Wpns with Boost V proc which is only For WE/WH/BW/SORC in RoR : D

Every char had like 10 more Proc options than we do now and back then, the Procs made the specs as they should. And RR 38 Inf gear wasnt pathetic like its now. 3% Crit has become 1% Crit. 6% Crit has become 2% Crit.... and missing that 12%/9% Crit dmg/rate increase makes kind of a big difference, When lowbie gear has actual Punch to it, that is missing, the Punch from RoR is missing!

This is obviously dumping down the gameplay so much, Sequencer is so much cancer i cant believe it exists. But yeah, That Content should make comeback, i dont even care if its just random instance and not even connected to end game or cities even if you fight the king

All the efforts for lowbies is just pointless when there is only Tier I and Tier 4. People say there isnt enough players to sustain middle tier but they are so wrong, nobody plays middle tier RvR because they want to face enemies that dont have access to 2 more tactic slots i mean come one ffs.

[galaxgal]

There must be something done to help those players who stop before they even really get a chance to start.

Regardless of the specifics we agree there, and I do agree with the changes overall.
The renown grind will probably also be a lot more tolerable if or when RvR gets reworked away from box running.

[joroth]

Hi,

As a new player who rejoined a couple months ago, I would like to say that the leveling up of the Renown ranks feels way too slow.

I can't really try other classes because it would take even longer to get Sov gear on my 1st character.

Level a 2h blackgaurd most of your bis or 2nd bis comes from pve. or if a deftard wh. these take little to no crests to feel really strong