Normally, I am just a PVE player.
Give me mobs that stand there and wait for me or only let me worry about is pathing.
How ever, there has been times when I have dipped my toes into the PvP shark filled waters.
When I played WoW, one of the things that amazed me, was the impromptu PVP. It could descent on any of the towns in the game, sending out alerts to warning those in the area that the closest town was under attack. Most players would quickly band together creating a force to defend said town from the Invaders.
It would boil down to a PvP happening, leaving a wake of little skeleton bodies covering the area. It would go on as long as there were players attacking each other and end when the attackers decided to head back home, and I found these little PVP battles fun. I could either join in or stand off and watch.
SO when battleground was announced I was pretty jazzed about it, because we have finally gotten some sort of volunteer PvP content, also it would bring in people from all servers. Something that Blizzard has been doing for quite a while now and darn it….why should they have all the cool thing and not us at EQ2?
Dueling is ok but your are limited to a single player, and the arena are ok but for some reason no one cares for them.
So I logged on to the test-copy server and dove in head first. I did a ALT Z and hit the “add me to any”. I got qued up and zapped into the first open spot. I found my self in an area with a barrier surrounding my self and a few other people, then before the group was full we were released. I had not read up on which battleground this was, so I was lost as to what the heck I was doing. Was this capture the flag or defend?? I had no clue.
Lets just say it was a slaughter, I don’t even remember getting one shot in on anyone, I just remember dying then reviving and finding my self dead yet again. My revive point was either camped or I was reviving right where I died. After my team lost we found our self’s in a tight pile having to /quit to get out.
This was over a week ago and I now know what has been keeping Rothgar up late, giving him headache and basically making him living at his desk. He has been very busy working out the kinks and is continuing to do so.
This past week there came a server wide tempting offer from Breno to ” come try BG and get a cloak for participating”, which caused me to give it another shot.
Yes I lowered my self to accept the bribe of a free item to go try BG again. I figured that even if I had to stand there and die again a bunch of times, I would have a cloak to wrap my wounds in.
This time I read over the options, made mental note as to which was a capture the flag, protect the relic or defend the area. I hit the Add me to first open yet again and waited, and with a small sound prompt, the accept window popped up so off I went.
I entered the Gears of Klak’anon instance, which is a protect the relic match. I was not sure what the relic was or how to protect it but at least I knew what I was headed for. The first thing to happen after entering the instance I was prompted to pick my UL settings.
* blinks* What a time to be hit with this!!
I hastily picked one and then spent the next few mins adjusting my hotbars and keys before I could dive into the action.
This time I actually had fun! I was able to run around, get a few kills in and heck I even snagged the relic for a while. Oh I got killed but it was ok, because I was able to get back into the action for a while before I got nailed again. Our team did not win but it was so very close. The teams, this time, seemed to be more evenly matched than in the first one I tried. When done I got a token for that instance for my time and trouble.
I jumped in again and I picked the Gears of Klak’anon since I had a good time in it and knew what was needed of me. The wait was short and off I went again. Still my team did not win, matter of fact, my team lost by over half of what the winning team had (220 to 400 something)…but…I had a good time again, I was even laughing at times.
One member of my team did not have a good time and expressed it before we got whisked back the test server. Upon returning I contacted him to find out why.
Jameston is a fellow AB server player and we had a long talk about our experiences with BG so far. Things we liked, disliked and things we both thought might be a better way to experience BG. His experience was very much like my first, all deaths no play which is no fun at all. This made him feel that BG was a big Fail.
First, having a totally different UI set up is good but also I was not ready for it. I am also not sure how I can refine my UI set for battleground without being in there. That is an important part, having the spell line up correct and ready, there is little time to mess around while your in BG.
Second, the balance of groups. I had heard that they even had two groups full of SK’s once. When you go in and the teams are balanced it is much more fun! If a group which is mostly level 80’s face off a with a group of mostly 90’s or if a group is too heavy in one class or another then the fun factor decreases. I can find no joy in being stuck in a death loop.
Third PVE vs PVP. Many PvE players who might want to play BG are generally worried that they will not have a chance against seasoned PvP players. They are already set up in the UI’s, gear and tactics to tromp any who are not. Meaning PvE players who are still learning how to PVP will be lambs to the slaughter.
If there was some way to match PvE against other PVE players I could see BG being something that would carry a larger fun factor.
Most PVE players just won’t keep at it if there is little to no chance of them competing with PvP players in these instances. People will lose interest in wanting to go just to be killed over and over, cool gear or not.
Jameston is a very good example of a normal PVE player coming and giving BG a shot, only to walk away with a bad experience with little to encourage him to try it again. It is the first impressions of any thing new that will either drive the player away or entice them to try it again. I am hoping that Jameston will give it another shot either on test or when it goes live.
One thing I can see happening is people recruiting members for raids, or groups just to do BG. Planning tactic and strategy for each instance. Having people assigned to roles and learning to stick together can really make a different in winning or losing.
Honestly I would like to see some way to chose which you end up playing against. Maybe server wide and world wide choices. I know this would be a great way to bring back Guild wars. Back in EQ1, one guild could declare war on the other and if the other guild accepted, all members were flagged PVP to each other.
Battleground could offer a way for this to be brought back IF each guild could enter the same BG instance as the other. Right now I have no idea if this is possible since it pulls from all servers.
I do like the fact that my gear was not harmed after all those deaths, I like that I got at least a token after it was done. I was not able to find anything about the rewards ( how many tokens it takes etc) but if EQ2 Battleground is structured as WoW”s battlegrounds are, then for rewards you will need to do X number of each instance to progress in the reward structure.
I am looking forward to seeing this go live EVEN though they are still tweaking it. They still need more people in there playing and testing and sending in feedback. One thing everyone needs to remember about /feedback, don’t just send one off saying * this sucks*.
Let them know what parts of it you did not like but also put in anything you DID LIKE. What way they can work on making it better for all players. Remember that positive constructive criticism gives them more to work with. They do listen and are really looking to providing this to all players.
So see you in battleground!!
And if you end up with an arrow from me in your back,
honest it’s nothing personal, and I expect to see you getting me back next go around
but for now….( snatches up the relic out of your cold dead hands) MINE!…
