So ... Ilum.

[Slikeh]

Let me start by saying I havent made a single negative post ever about anything concerning PvP (imbalance , wz or ilum) because I always believed BW would improve and I still do , its just that this is taking way too long and it IS gamebreaking.

 

I play a sage both healing and dps - depends on my mood- and I got battlemaster 2-3 weeks ago through grinding WZ and Ilum. I enjoy doing both PvE and PvP but in all the games Ive played I have always been interested more in the competitiveness of PvP , but Ilum , as it is right now is killing that.

 

I have been reading the forums for a while and my server seems to be one of the best concerning faction imbalance. People have been saying theres literally no republic at Ilum and they have to farm 150 boxes weekly or that imperials are non stop outside republic base while in my server we always have at least some pubs in Ilum , been getting lots of fights even sometimes outside the base and its not that hard to get 30 kills as republic with the cannons and whatnot. Still things are starting to change and every day you see less people in Ilum , just this past week we had 50 people during the weekly update and now they re droping to 15-20 at peak time - which is sad. I actually had to miss my daily Ilum for the first time since I hit 50 because there was literally 10 people in Ilum at 8 game time. Note I am speaking about people generally in ilum , not the raid.

 

Its obvious the design is flawed and why republics do not stay in Ilum more than their 30 kills a day - if even that - as most dont even bother anymore. Getting farmed outside your base by 3-4x the amount of people you have is not fun but more importantly getting 20 valor per kill while the enemy team gets 200 is simply not worth your time especially considering you get 1 kill every minute or so. You ll probably say that sometimes republics sneak out and get some bases and yes it happens but its rare and the last 3-4 days I ve never got more than 1 base buff (the republic base) .

 

So basicly you have imps mass farming valor (which makes it worth it for them going to ilum even if they finish their dailies) when republic is there which results in them climbing the ranks insanely fast. Every warzone you enter you meet new war heroes and battlemasters when on our side I have met 1 war hero (who actually stopped playing) and the battlemasters are so few you actually get to know them by their name... If you intend to add new valor rewards for higher ranks (70+) most of the PvP active imperials will get them while pubs will not.

 

So my question is why should someone interested in PvP roll on republic side when it will take half the time to farm to battlemaster as an Imperial? Why should I level my alt on republic side when I know Ilum will give me nothing when I can be getting my daily done really fast while farming tons of valor? And more importantly , how do you expect the faction imbalance to get fixed when Imps farm valor faster (due to ilum wz wins and better gear ) and have more people to play/raid/pvp with? The only bad thing about an imp is (I guess) queue times. You cant expect people to reroll - or join republic out of the goodness of their heart when they know they will be losing most wzs and get farmed in their base in Ilum. Im not one to make suggestions , there are more qualified people than me to suggest/decide that stuff plus those things I suggest have probably been already mentioned before. BUT PLEASE , at least add a valor cap or some valor buff when being outnumbered / farmed ... and do it fast , its getting out of hand and its only getting worse when one side is getting everything and the other gets nothing...

[venjinze]

Let me start by saying I havent made a single negative post ever about anything concerning PvP (imbalance , wz or ilum) because I always believed BW would improve and I still do , its just that this is taking way too long and it IS gamebreaking.

 

I play a sage both healing and dps - depends on my mood- and I got battlemaster 2-3 weeks ago through grinding WZ and Ilum. I enjoy doing both PvE and PvP but in all the games Ive played I have always been interested more in the competitiveness of PvP , but Ilum , as it is right now is killing that.

 

I have been reading the forums for a while and my server seems to be one of the best concerning faction imbalance. People have been saying theres literally no republic at Ilum and they have to farm 150 boxes weekly or that imperials are non stop outside republic base while in my server we always have at least some pubs in Ilum , been getting lots of fights even sometimes outside the base and its not that hard to get 30 kills as republic with the cannons and whatnot. Still things are starting to change and every day you see less people in Ilum , just this past week we had 50 people during the weekly update and now they re droping to 15-20 at peak time - which is sad. I actually had to miss my daily Ilum for the first time since I hit 50 because there was literally 10 people in Ilum at 8 game time. Note I am speaking about people generally in ilum , not the raid.

 

Its obvious the design is flawed and why republics do not stay in Ilum more than their 30 kills a day - if even that - as most dont even bother anymore. Getting farmed outside your base by 3-4x the amount of people you have is not fun but more importantly getting 20 valor per kill while the enemy team gets 200 is simply not worth your time especially considering you get 1 kill every minute or so. You ll probably say that sometimes republics sneak out and get some bases and yes it happens but its rare and the last 3-4 days I ve never got more than 1 base buff (the republic base) .

 

So basicly you have imps mass farming valor (which makes it worth it for them going to ilum even if they finish their dailies) when republic is there which results in them climbing the ranks insanely fast. Every warzone you enter you meet new war heroes and battlemasters when on our side I have met 1 war hero (who actually stopped playing) and the battlemasters are so few you actually get to know them by their name... If you intend to add new valor rewards for higher ranks (70+) most of the PvP active imperials will get them while pubs will not.

 

So my question is why should someone interested in PvP roll on republic side when it will take half the time to farm to battlemaster as an Imperial? Why should I level my alt on republic side when I know Ilum will give me nothing when I can be getting my daily done really fast while farming tons of valor? And more importantly , how do you expect the faction imbalance to get fixed when Imps farm valor faster (due to ilum wz wins and better gear ) and have more people to play/raid/pvp with? The only bad thing about an imp is (I guess) queue times. You cant expect people to reroll - or join republic out of the goodness of their heart when they know they will be losing most wzs and get farmed in their base in Ilum. Im not one to make suggestions , there are more qualified people than me to suggest/decide that stuff plus those things I suggest have probably been already mentioned before. BUT PLEASE , at least add a valor cap or some valor buff when being outnumbered / farmed ... and do it fast , its getting out of hand and its only getting worse when one side is getting everything and the other gets nothing...

 

Failed conjecture. Plenty of Republic Battlemasters on my server, valor 60 is not hard to achieve. Nothing is hard to attain in this game. Being that it's 2 months post release and we're all rolling around in full 'end game' epics yo.

[Slikeh]

Failed conjecture. Plenty of Republic Battlemasters on my server, valor 60 is not hard to achieve. Nothing is hard to attain in this game. Being that it's 2 months post release and we're all rolling around in full 'end game' epics yo.

 

Thats not the point of my post. I am not saying there arent enough battlemasters , Im saying its way easier to get any valor rank as an imperial than a republic which makes Imperial side a better choice when you re interested in doing PvP.

[venjinze]

Thats not the point of my post. I am not saying there arent enough battlemasters , Im saying its way easier to get any valor rank as an imperial than a republic which makes Imperial side a better choice when you re interested in doing PvP.

 

It's interesting, I have a republic alt I just pvp with, I don't remember the last time the republic has lost a wz in the 1-49 bracket. Also, when the ***** going down in Ilum, I also notice a huge population of republic level 50's sitting in fleet. The problem is, once people get their daily done, they leave.

 

The republic population excuse doesn't seem to be that valid anymore, from what I can see.

[Slikeh]

It's interesting, I have a republic alt I just pvp with, I don't remember the last time the republic has lost a wz in the 1-49 bracket. Also, when the ***** going down in Ilum, I also notice a huge population of republic level 50's sitting in fleet. The problem is, once people get their daily done, they leave.

 

The republic population excuse doesn't seem to be that valid anymore, from what I can see.

 

Well yes , we dont lose 1-49. But assuming the largest valor farm u have to do is 50+ that doesnt help much. And what you say is true , nobody from republic bothers with Ilum anymore , cause like I said , why should you bother getting farmed in your base getting 20 valor while they re outnumbering you and getting 7-8 times that.

[KilmarFyrewynd]

It's interesting, I have a republic alt I just pvp with, I don't remember the last time the republic has lost a wz in the 1-49 bracket. Also, when the ***** going down in Ilum, I also notice a huge population of republic level 50's sitting in fleet. The problem is, once people get their daily done, they leave.

 

The republic population excuse doesn't seem to be that valid anymore, from what I can see.

 

it might not be on your server, but I can guarantee many of the servers have a vast faction population difference and it does cause a huge disparity in the number of BM equipped PvPers, valor ranks, frequent WZs where the Imps outnumber the Pubs, and the fiasco we call Ilum.

 

Just because it doesn't happen to you, doesn't mean it's not happening. I'm sure there are servers that the Republic outnumber the Empire or it's close to 1:1, but those are rare. If you think otherwise, I suggest you make alts on other servers and port to Fleet and check it out yourself.

 

Also, once you hit 50, it's a totally different game. Do you know why 1-49 are so prevalent in the Republic? It's because many of us are so frustrated with PvP at 50 that we resort to playing our alts.

Edited February 24, 2012 by KilmarFyrewynd

[thanealpha]

Thats not the point of my post. I am not saying there arent enough battlemasters , Im saying its way easier to get any valor rank as an imperial than a republic which makes Imperial side a better choice when you re interested in doing PvP.

 

I think the answer is that even 1 point of valor past Rank 60 currently is meaningless.

 

SO yeah, it may be harder/more time consuming to hit 60 but then what...nothing.

 

So who cares if it takes 2 weeks or 4 weeks, you're equally as bored once you get to that point.

 

I'm Valor 64 and need ONE more BM commendation to have every slot BM gear. And the game it pretty much dead to me now. Unless my friends are queuing I don't bother to PvP, and I'm bored sick of the PvE side. I'm not an alt player so yeah...I personally would wish for a LONGER grind to the top tier of PvP. Not shorter. Too bad even Rep side is SUPER fast.

[Slikeh]

I think the answer is that even 1 point of valor past Rank 60 currently is meaningless.

 

SO yeah, it may be harder/more time consuming to hit 60 but then what...nothing.

 

So who cares if it takes 2 weeks or 4 weeks, you're equally as bored once you get to that point.

 

I'm Valor 64 and need ONE more BM commendation to have every slot BM gear. And the game it pretty much dead to me now. Unless my friends are queuing I don't bother to PvP, and I'm bored sick of the PvE side. I'm not an alt player so yeah...I personally would wish for a LONGER grind to the top tier of PvP. Not shorter. Too bad even Rep side is SUPER fast.

 

That is true but a totally different subject. I am almost full BM myself (missing 3 items) like i said after 2,5 weeks of being BM. I used to do 20-30 wzs a day and now i do just enough to finish my daily (mainly because I dont enjoy facing warhero premades while Im running with 12-13k people) , maybe some more to help my friends but thats it. It is indeed very easy to get anything you can get at this point and its really sad you can say "Game Over" after 2 months of playing , but once they start adding stuff (which they will have to unless they choose to completely ignore the PvP community) and making things a bit harder to get , the gap will get even bigger.

Edited February 24, 2012 by Slikeh

[G-Seven]

I play on Jedi Covenant and I think the faction balance is fairly even, but I have mixed feelings about Ilum. Typically, there are either too many Republic or too many Imps and it becomes a zerg fest.

 

Warzones on the other hand are typically dominated by the Imperials. So much, that I have decided it would be far faster to grind out BM on an Imperial character in WZs than on Ilum as a Republic.

 

In closing, I agree with the OP as far as my server goes that Imperials have a far easier time obtaining high-end PvP gear. I cannot explain why, but perhaps it's the gear and/or skill disparity.

[vortexdr]

Huh im imperial and Ilum is no fun...We even have big fights on our server at times but cmon its either one side zergs or the other. There are no tools given to the outnumbered faction to put up a fight.

 

Not like you can use tactics or any kind of melee class in the ilum lag fest. So everything is pretty much a moot point. Fail design is fail and no fast band aid fix is going to make a difference.

 

I mean the game simply cant handle big fights. PERIOD.

[venjinze]

it might not be on your server, but I can guarantee many of the servers have a vast faction population difference and it does cause a huge disparity in the number of BM equipped PvPers, valor ranks, frequent WZs where the Imps outnumber the Pubs, and the fiasco we call Ilum.

 

Just because it doesn't happen to you, doesn't mean it's not happening. I'm sure there are servers that the Republic outnumber the Empire or it's close to 1:1, but those are rare. If you think otherwise, I suggest you make alts on other servers and port to Fleet and check it out yourself.

 

Also, once you hit 50, it's a totally different game. Do you know why 1-49 are so prevalent in the Republic? It's because many of us are so frustrated with PvP at 50 that we resort to playing our alts.

 

How can you guaranty this? Where is this solidified proof? A month ago i'd probably agree with you, but due to so many people leaving the game, I've noticed a drastic reduction in the amount of Imperial that show up to Ilum, and I've noticed an increase in republic population. We never have more than 1 op , a few weeks ago Republic had 3 ops and we were confined to our base most of the evening. Things are evening out, you're just using a redundant, overly used excuse to Republic not showing up to the party.

Edited February 24, 2012 by venjinze

[jumay]

Another part of the problem that I have noticed over the last few days is that even when the pubs have the numbers, they don't force the issue and cap more objectives. Some seem conditioned to sitting inside the gates and doing the back and forth dance to farm a few kills. When other people start to push the imps back to their base and want to cap more points, all you hear is return to turret.

[Pcolapat]

Your right, Ilum is poorly designed.

 

every kill you get on republic does not count for valor when you camp their base, their spawn is right there. The republic however will get credit every kill since almost none of the players camping them are on cooldown since their spawn is so far away. This is the reason some try to get the group to pull back to southern assault. A large fight at southern is an even exchange of valor, and usually we outnumber them so they get one or two kills and we get a dozen or so.

[Avenox]

Llolum iz ill.

 

good for the carebears to get to BM tho

Edited February 24, 2012 by Avenox

[KilmarFyrewynd]

How can you guaranty this? Where is this solidified proof? A month ago i'd probably agree with you, but due to so many people leaving the game, I've noticed a drastic reduction in the amount of Imperial that show up to Ilum, and I've noticed an increase in republic population. We never have more than 1 op , a few weeks ago Republic had 3 ops and we were confined to our base most of the evening. Things are evening out, you're just using a redundant, overly used excuse to Republic not showing up to the party.

 

1. Make a Republic alt on a standard or above average population during a busy timeframe, type /who Fleet. Count the numbers.

2. Make an Empire alt on the same server and type /who Fleet. Count the numbers.

3. Do the same with /who Ilum.

 

Fleet/Ilum is a fairly good indication of the population balance. We know that there was a population imbalance, you assume that due to the amount of people leaving it's becoming even. I should be the one asking you to prove it. There are Republic people fed up with the imbalance and quit also.

Edited February 24, 2012 by KilmarFyrewynd

[Nembokid]

It's not hard to make Ilum fun, JUST DO what GW2 is doing with their Huge pvp map, cross server fight , great siege mechanics!!

As much as i love this game if BW don't do something to make PVP open world interesting, they will loose a large number of pvpers for games like GW2 or Planetside2.

Edited February 24, 2012 by Nembokid

[Ugugg]

I would love Ilum to be a bit more like vanilla AV. There were other side quests you could to get some npc's to zerg or help your side.

 

I found it weird that if i walk up to a capture point theres no one there guarding it. The objectives are easy to capture.

 

There are a lot of things that feel right with ilum, but i can't quite put my finger on it. It feels too big with no real objective. What do you do when one side isn't there? Collecting armaments in a pvp zone ..... ? !!

 

Even if it meant that capping every enemy base means that the losing team starts spawning groups of packs 100k elitesx5 that count as killing a player would promote some kind of objective. The champ/elites will always move around packs and should be hard to kill. Have a healer/tank/3dps for exmaple.

 

This would give the defensive side a chance to fight back when outnumbered

This would give the offensive side something to do to get their dailies done.

Strength of the elites should be based off how many of the other team are in your base.

 

Just need something other than collecting armaments ....

[Rehtiz]

No Valor Gained.

 

Currently am getting that constantly when fighting in ilum. Have to kill myself to get rid of it, a few kills later I get the message. Very annoying when 40 imps try to retake central and we smash them back, with half of us not getting any valor due to the above bug.

[Elooie]

Ilum is too wide open. Needs choke points and side quests would be good.

 

I also think there should be some sort of NPC presence where each node you control closer to your own base the presence gets larger. (Maybe side quests upgrade these units)

 

Also I dont understand the placement of the Graveyards. They are close to nothing and I dont undertand why I have to lose half my life getting off the platforms.

 

If they dont create more flow to the zone they should tie flight points to some sort of objective.

[VxMenionxV]

The OP Does have a Point. I'm a Republic Player on the Naddist Rebels Server, And the Imps Always Severely Outnumber us on ILUM. Ultimately, they Farm outside of our base getting all of the Capture bonuses to their Valor, while we get no bonuses for to Valor for our kills. Both Sides Just Fish with their Pulls.. But since the Imps have 3-4 Times the players, They also have 3-4 Times the number of people Pulling for kills than we do.

 

Imps Therefore will Gain their BM Rank Much Quicker. They'll Get their Weekly and Daily Quests done quicker and consistently. They'll Gear up Much Quicker Than the Reps. Because it's much easier for them than the Republic, Republic Players Tend to Reroll IMP so they can get BM Quicker.

 

So what happens when everyone finally does get to BM on both sides? Bioware will release a new Tier of PVP Gear.. and if the mechanics remain the same (i'm hoping they won't) The Imps will just repeat the same method to Farm Valor and Get the New Tier of Gear 3 X quicker than the Reps will be able to. Ilum is so Broken in Highly Population Inbalanced servers right now it hurts.

 

You know they're trying to come up with a solution, But the Game has been out for over two Months, and all they've done so far with Ilum is make it worse.

 

AND DON'T EVEN GET Me STARTED on Patch 1.1. OMG. That they didn't do Valor Rollbacks after that Fiasco Majorly Screwed The low Pop Factions on Population imbalanced servers.

 

I Love bioware, I've Played every game they've Released Since Bauldur's Gate, I went to Pax East Last Year Specifically so i could be one of the first people to get some hands on time with the game. I met the Game Developers at their Meet and Greet at Pax East Last year, and They're All really nice people. I don't want to talk any trash on them.

 

My Patience is Just simply almost at an end concerning the Unfairness the Republic has been dealing with on Naddist Rebels due to the Population Inbalance..