Feeling Discouraged

[MaidLeila]

Hello all,

I'm new to the server. I've leveled and archmage to 25/33 and I'm getting frustrated with the game. I was having a blast in tier 1 and when I got to 16, I was excited to start participating in tier 2+. For a while it was going well. I was a part of warbands that cared about taking objectives, capping supplies and sieging'defending keeps. We took a few zones and got into some large scale battles. I was having so much fun. Yet it seems that I was just lucky in the beginning because those experiences became less frequent and I was kicked from several warbands for "being too low level", got into warbands where all people cared about was getting kills, and I could no longer win 1v1s because competing with people in RR45+ gear is simply not possible when you're a bolstered rank 20-something. I remember in tier 1 I had a reasonable chance of surviving an attempted gank by a with elf, and even managed to win a few 1v1s with witch elves by the skin of my teeth and it felt good. Now when a witch elf ganks me I get CC'd immediately and often killed before the CC wears off. I can handle a loss and still have fun, but It's no fun when you can't even fight back...

What I'm hoping someone will do for me is give me a reason to stick around. Does the game get better at rank 40? I want the game to be like it was in tier 1; taking objectives, capping supplies, large scale battles on even footing and being able to hold my own in 1v1s. If all tier 2+ is is a bunch of murder posses running around ganking each other, then I see myself leaving the game real fast. Please tell me it gets better and that people do generally care about the objectives and that when I get RR45+ gear I can reasonably survive 1v1s again. :/

[notrandomatall]

It gets better, though some of the t2-t4 rvr is blobbing and hunting for kills. You don't have to participate but many people do. There are some "famous" pug warband leaders actually following the objective and some focusing on getting kills. You start recognize their name in time.

You're most likely feeling weak at the moment because you were extremely strong in t1 before leaving. Playing a healer class and being high level. Shaman and Arch mages are the kings of t1.

The higher level you become the weaker hybrid you become so you also need to start focusing on either healing or damage dealing. This is because you're not getting as much of a bolster, bolstering both your healing and dps stats. Most people want you to heal though so if you're focusing on being a dps healer you should probably focus on scenarios otherwise you might get kicked for not fulfilling your role.

Try to update your gear and slot talismans, join a warband with less harsh autoband-ing going on or do scenarios.

This game is also a lot about conmunity, at least for me so you should probably try to join a guild also.

[anstalt]

Truthfully, this game is very tough on new players. Its a PvP game built on vertical progression, so not only do the veterans have a ton of extra experience, they're also significantly more powerful.

It does get better!

My general leveling plan goes as follows:

1-16 - RvR and SCs
16-20 - PvE (usually grinding crafting skills, or PQs for gear)
20-30 - SCs
30-35 - RvR
35-40 - SCs

The goal being to be rr45 as soon as I hit cr40. I don't do much RvR whilst leveling up, as on most classes it's very painful. But, the renown:xp ratio is better in RvR, plus you need to take some keeps for genesis crests, so I push through in the low 30s.

I do buy every PvP set whilst leveling, they're cheap and I have always been able to afford them. So, I get full annihilator at 35 (u need rr39 to equip full set) which then allows me to be very strong for the final 5 levels of SCs! Its fun!

At 40, I get full conq - again, I've always been able to afford it, and its still quite cheap. However, you can skip conq and do Mt Gunbad dungeon instead.

In full conq, you're still gonna suck, just not as much. But, you can then do endgame dungeons!

Do your city dungeon for sentinel gear, then bastion stairs for bloodlord. There is also hunters vale for yet more PvE gear.


The PvE gear has no rank requirements, which means if you focus on the PvE grind as soon as you hit cr40, you can jump up in power pretty quickly. Bloodlord is equivalent to Invader (tho, its a DPS set for tanks and healers, be warned!).

In full sentinel, you'll be a pretty good healer. In full bloodlord, you'll be pretty decent for solo / small scale fights (or blob surfing) and you'll be able to rank up pretty quick without needing a warband. You'll survive some 1v1s, but not all (same as everyone....).



On the warband / objective front, thats pure pot luck. Some warband leaders go for objectives and push keeps, others don't. Sometimes you're limited by the enemy, so even if you wanna take keeps, you can't. This sort of behaviour also feels cyclical - you go through days/weeks/months of good times, then days/weeks/months of bad. Thats the nature of a PvP game.

Learning how to make the most of any given situation is just part of the game - for example, I haven't enjoyed the PvP that much this week, so I went off and did some dungeons instead. You can switch between PvP or PvE. You can level up a new character. You can do some crafting. You can switch between warband play, small scale play, or solo play. You can focus on RvR, or SCs.

There are options! If you're flexible, you can usually find fun, but if you've set your heart on one specific type of gameplay, then there will definitely be days where you're disappointed.

[monmit3]

What anstalt said, plus there is no correct way to play this game. I've been playing it off, and on since it was a subscription game run by EA/Mythic, and some aspects of have never changed. There have always been some tightly run warbands, scenario parties, and guilds. where you're locked into a role, and that's the role you're expected to fill. Thanks to Discord, you see more of it now than in 2008. but it doesn't mean you have to play that way. Play some PvE, and actually learn what you can do with your abilities, it's a great training ground. Try some PQs solo, and not just the easy ones. Attack the random champions you find in PvE sections of the game, even if you're sure you'll lose. You may surprise yourself, and win.
Run solo in SCs, even if your running up against the same prebuilt Discord parties all the time. I was part of 5 today that we won, even though our kill count was noticeably lower, because we accomplished the objectives, while they ignored them, in order to farm. Personally, I'd be a little embarrassed having a 40 to 10 kill count, while loosing 500 to 245, but maybe that's just me.
Finally, if you're not enjoying the upper tiers that much, create a new character, or reroll an existing one, and play tier 1 again. There are plenty of players that do that. and just that, Like anstalt pointed out, there are numerus ways to level up with out spending your entire time in the RvR lakes.

[Faction69]

In my opinion the best thing to do is to level in scenarios where the playing field is a lot more even for a bolstered lowbie. Go to forts when they're up and otherwise just do scs whenever possible

Unfortunately the server does not have the playerbase to support a mid tier so what you've experienced is the compromise.


Rest assured that compared to how much you'll play at max levelling the levelling is not much time

[Rubius]

In addition to the good advice offered above, I'd recommend finding a guild to group with. Many guilds have years of collective experience among them and can help teach you / support you as you make your way up to level 40. The right guild can make a huge difference!

[Hazmy]

What Rubius says - 100%

Do yourself a big favor and just find an active guild to play in. It will change your game experience completely for the better. It's not about the usual "you have more fun with friends" - it's about this game built for group content.

[Akalukz]

Almost every guild is looking for dedicated good healers, I highly suggest you find one with the type of people you enjoy gaming with.

[TrainInVain]

I think finding a guild you like is the thing you can do, but an archmage is well suited to earn renown solo. You can always follow a WB healing, rezing, and dps. Run boxes (it helps your contrbution a lot), heal and cleans rams and look for open WB when sieges are happening. Take the insta rez tactic (also helps your contrbution a lot and you will get better bags this way.)
Thats what I do on my AM, sometimes I don't want to stare at 24 health bars or when group leaders want to do something I don't agree with, I just leave group.

There is a light at the end of the tunnel.

[Tupan]

As an AM, I suggest you to fast level to level 20. With it, you have group heal, which will increase the chances of you dont be kicked from wbs. However, I'd suggest you much more to become dps. As dps you will leech renown and experience much more in solo than in wbs. Also you can form groups which will increase your rewards.

These autoband wbs annoy me a lot too. And I have my healers all 70+! But I think that being kicked from wb is something very frustrating for a player. Actually I play as solo almost 100% of the time and do lots of renown with my AM. One way to avoid this problem is being part of a guild. Big guilds always run wbs and you won't be kicked. Plus of it, they can provide you some assistance with talismans, pots, player experience, etc.