What is actually happening in T4?
Posted: Mon Sep 05, 2016 9:16 pm
I want to be clear before I go any further that I don't intend this to be a whine post/thread. I'm posting this out of concern for the future of the game, and would love to get a constructive discussion going about what can be done to make positive changes.
I just recently broke into T4 over the past weekend, and so far what I've seen has been extraordinarily discouraging. There hasn't been any actual PvP -- I've seen players fighting players, certainly, but in each situation the entire engagement was over in less than 20 seconds. Typically it has been order with between 40-80% AAO, but that doesn't tell the whole story either. The order groups that I have seen have included 1/2-3/4 of a warband put together by a guild (organized group, most if not all level 40 and reasonably geared) and up to a warband of PUGs, typically sub 40 with highly suboptimal guild. In the engagement that just occurred, for example, the order side had maybe 6 level 40s in the open warband vs. maybe 15-18 sub-40s. I can't say for sure what the destro composition was, but it looked like almost exclusively 40's in proper gear (as a level 34 every destro was purple to me), mostly with guild tags.
My concern is that this kind of PvP is fun for almost nobody. It can't be fun for destro, especially destro who already have their gear settled, as they have very little to gain. Constantly steamrolling the opposition is fun to some people for a little while, but it gets old fast. From the order side, of course, it's totally demoralizing when you get maybe one or two GCDs before your entire group is wiped by an enemy force that has superior numbers AND superior levels/gear.
Generally after one or two engagements, the order players just disband and log off.
I've also been surprised by how few people in T4 are actually ORvRing. In those situations where order was suffering 40-80% AAO while fielding maybe 36-42 total people, the population counter showed close to a 50/50 split with a large number of people on both sides not PvPing. With approximately 400 people in T4 and ~200ish on each side, there were close to 150 T4 order players not actually fighting and probably 125+ destro not fighting either. It's not like these players are highly engaged in PvE. When the majority of your playerbase is not really engaging with the game at any given point in time, that has to be concerning.
If competitive oRvR in T4 does not exist, then the game has a very serious problem.
I just recently broke into T4 over the past weekend, and so far what I've seen has been extraordinarily discouraging. There hasn't been any actual PvP -- I've seen players fighting players, certainly, but in each situation the entire engagement was over in less than 20 seconds. Typically it has been order with between 40-80% AAO, but that doesn't tell the whole story either. The order groups that I have seen have included 1/2-3/4 of a warband put together by a guild (organized group, most if not all level 40 and reasonably geared) and up to a warband of PUGs, typically sub 40 with highly suboptimal guild. In the engagement that just occurred, for example, the order side had maybe 6 level 40s in the open warband vs. maybe 15-18 sub-40s. I can't say for sure what the destro composition was, but it looked like almost exclusively 40's in proper gear (as a level 34 every destro was purple to me), mostly with guild tags.
My concern is that this kind of PvP is fun for almost nobody. It can't be fun for destro, especially destro who already have their gear settled, as they have very little to gain. Constantly steamrolling the opposition is fun to some people for a little while, but it gets old fast. From the order side, of course, it's totally demoralizing when you get maybe one or two GCDs before your entire group is wiped by an enemy force that has superior numbers AND superior levels/gear.
Generally after one or two engagements, the order players just disband and log off.
I've also been surprised by how few people in T4 are actually ORvRing. In those situations where order was suffering 40-80% AAO while fielding maybe 36-42 total people, the population counter showed close to a 50/50 split with a large number of people on both sides not PvPing. With approximately 400 people in T4 and ~200ish on each side, there were close to 150 T4 order players not actually fighting and probably 125+ destro not fighting either. It's not like these players are highly engaged in PvE. When the majority of your playerbase is not really engaging with the game at any given point in time, that has to be concerning.
If competitive oRvR in T4 does not exist, then the game has a very serious problem.
