I think we can declare Faction v Faction PvP dead on Tofn

[UltimateKrucible]

To preface this, let me say I'm a subscriber since launch and have PvP'd since day one. I've been through the days when gear came in 'lucky bags', through the smashmonkey era and the unkillable scouperatives, and now here we are at 3.0. I'm not the best PvP'r on the server, but in no way am I the worst. My main is full Dread Reaver, my alts are full exp and working towards full DR. I play rep side.

 

It's pointless.

 

Since the server was created it's been the home of Euro PvP. I started off on Starstorm One server, then moved to the original Tofn, then on to the megaserver when it was born. It was home to a good community of PvPr's although the faction imbalance was always present. However, there's been a steady bleed of good PvPrs from rep side to the imps, or out of the game. I know there are a few good players left, but I do not think there is one rep PvP guild. Or, at least, one of note. The danger was always that there would come a tipping point where PvPing on rep side became uncompetitive.

 

We are now past that tipping point, imo.

 

During this Conquest week - Death Mark - I've been endeavouring to reach 35k on three toons at lvl 60, almost exclusively by PvPing. Just as an experiment, and because I dislike crafting for conq points. It has not been a good experience. WZ at the moment are dominated completely by imp premades, and often cluttered by the same 'fotm' classes. It is not unusual to see four sorcs to a team, or four assassins or PTs. In fact, it's the norm. Usually all of the same guild and presumably operating on TS. Against this there is no defence, at least not from the collection of half-geared pugs you get rep side.

 

I'm all for fighting against the odds - heck, I've stayed rep side using an Infil shadow as my main when all the temptation was to go roll a hatred Assassin - and I enjoy a challenge. I enjoy PvP, always have. But there's a the enjoyment that comes from a hard fight, and there's the sorrow of a lost cause. Tofn is now a lost cause.

 

You can see this is the rise of 'trolling' behaviour. I've seen players 'go on strike' by giving up and emoting in a corner (get your 500 conq points and losers comms and move on). Even good players. I've seen quitters galore, and ragers and surrender, and, my personal favourite, those that actually help the opposing team to get the match over quicker. And I blame none of them - because, as I say, trying to PvP on rep side Tofn is pointless.

 

And worse than that. It's just not fun.

 

The bleed of players away from the server has now reached haemorrhage proportions. Several nights this week, at around 9.30pm gmt, Tofn has been at 'Light' status. During what should be prime time. The 'mega'server is dying.

 

There are ways to reverse this situation, of course:

 

1) Cross server PvP and matchmaking. End the domination by one side at a stroke.

 

2) Declare a 'training week', or month, or whatever - and suspend faction v faction PvP to allow the rep side to gear up and at least get the pleasure of winning a few matches against similar opposition.

 

3) Make rep rewards for PvP greater than imp, at least for a while. Controversial, I know, but something needs to be done to attract PvPrs to the rep side, or to gear players up quicker.

 

Any of these may help retain players, or attract more. But we all know that none of this will come to pass, and that's a great shame. So this isn't really a post whining for help, as some will surely say. It's a Eulogy.

 

TL;DR: See title. How's your server?

[ronniehenlau]

My pve server is amazing, thanks for asking.

[DethlaHadyn]

We all understand your pain, for every server goes through this shift in power at some point in time. You know, If it becomes absolutely impossible to make a name for yourself and find like-minded players that display pvp intuition...either take a little break or try out a new server for awhile. If those aren't options, then develop a sense of humor. It will serve you good.

 

I'll add that swtor isn't completely in the gutter IF they start announcing that they are willing to respond to the PvP aspect of this game. They would be fools to disregard the possibilities of losing even more pvp'ers.

 

 

Hang in there bud, and give 'em hell...

Edited March 22, 2015 by DethlaHadyn

[MotorCityMan]

Been suggested for years.

 

One time Bioware answered in writing. The answer was

 

"NO"

[Khurasan]

I also have been on TOFN since day one on rep side. Yes i agree that there is a great faction imbalance which makes pvp gearing at lvl 60 very difficult. So i took a different alternative to pvp gearing. I started lvling my alt with 30-59 pvp only, found a good partner (im Vanguard tank, teamed up with a serinity shadow) from all the WZ's we played from 55 to 60 we maybe lost 10 matches. So what to do with all comms you ask? You go to the stronghold/pvp vendor and buy the stronghodl title for 1000 WZ coms (this item is not bound). Then you quickly travel to your stronghold and place the title worth 1000 coms in legacy bank. Then log out and pick the title up with a an alt that you never play with and log out. The titles have a 2 hour refund timer but does not run down when you are logged out, so you can basically stack infinite comms. Then when i dinged lvl 60 with my vanguard i picked up 13 titles worth 13.000 coms (i have around 40k comms stacked) 3 mill in cash bought my WZ gear and augumented it all. Now i have a really good start point for the end game pvp gear. And i find the win/lose ration at lvl 60pvp around 50/50 so its not all that bad.

 

Long story short yes it is difficult to get pvp gear once your 60, but that can be helped by the above method, if bioware wont balance things out, then we gotta do creative stuff.

[AlrikFassbauer]

1) Cross server PvP and matchmaking. End the domination by one side at a stroke.

 

2) Declare a 'training week', or month, or whatever - and suspend faction v faction PvP to allow the rep side to gear up and at least get the pleasure of winning a few matches against similar opposition.

 

3) Make rep rewards for PvP greater than imp, at least for a while. Controversial, I know, but something needs to be done to attract PvPrs to the rep side, or to gear players up quicker.

 

Any of these may help retain players, or attract more. But we all know that none of this will come to pass, and that's a great shame. So this isn't really a post whining for help, as some will surely say. It's a Eulogy.

 

TL;DR: See title. How's your server?

 

1. My fear is that cross-server might actually increase the faction inbalance. Why ? Simply - because ALL servers have some or other form of faction inbalance towards Imp ...

 

2. & 3. Yes, Empire players won't like this at all. They'll heavily protest against it. Why ? Because they actually[7i]profit[/i] from this faction inbalance.

 

And 20 years later, people will remember SWTOR ... and say : "we spoiled Rep's fun. Good times !" , laughing.

 

Their personal egoism is slowly destroying the whole game.

 

And now what I personally believe is the most important point : Why is Bioware planning mostly STORY content over PvP content for 2015 ?

That's simple : Because story players / PvE players = Republic faction players.

 

Their try to battle this faction inbalance is by attracting more Republic players by providing them what they want : PvE.

 

PvP = Empire

PvP = Republic

 

That's what I believe, personally.

 

What I also fear is, that those who have started this trend in the first place are already gone, similar to nContent Locusts, and moved on to another game - and beginning to destroy it as well. By the same means / way.

 

i tend to believe - but I'm not that certain - that either IMp faction PvP players just don't care about whom they are fighting against - evil vs. evil is as good as evil vs. good for them, because in BOTH cases they can actually live out their "evil side" they've got to hide in RL if that's what they want - or they'd even rejoice when REpublic faction is completely destroyed. If THAT happens, I expect the internet be flooded with millions of "I won SWTOR" or "I won SWTOR faction PvP" memes / signs.

[Campaigner]

I think Empire has the advantage in PvP and refuse to attach evidence to my argument.

.

Snipers have to stand up out of cover to cast Snipe.

Gunslingers remain down behind their cover until their cast is finished upon which they jump up real quick to shoot it out.

 

Sounds like a good case of Republic>Empire to me!

[Zoom_VI]

Snipers have to stand up out of cover to cast Snipe.

Gunslingers remain down behind their cover until their cast is finished upon which they jump up real quick to shoot it out.

 

Sounds like a good case of Republic>Empire to me!

 

Good to know I'm not the only person that has noticed that one

[GrimRita]

I think its more to do with Biowares broken Q system. Quite often I see same faction pvp - and thats both sides at the same time.

 

After a morning of nothing but the same factions in same faction pvp, I switched the Imperial side and someone muttered 'not again. this will be the 4th time, there must be some reps online'.

 

I told them what I just experienced. But lets face it, the Q has been broken for ages - and faction v faction should always be the priority but I am almost certain the game pools players in a certain map cycle which would explain why you see the same map 3 times in a row, or the same cycle of the same 2 maps over and over.

 

But asking Bioware to understand PvP is like asking them to think that this game is actually an MMO when essentially its a single player instanced experience

[DarthOvertone]

OP...it's time to roll Imp. Your Pub and its guild will still be there, but unless you are hardcore into RP, there is no reason to stick with a faction that has become a ghost town.

 

It will literally take you one month to level a mirror Imp to your main. By that time you can cap your RWZ and WZ comms so that your toon can score their Reaver Relics and Earpiece as soon as they hit 60. Then it's just a matter of grinding two Reaver Implants, which takes next to no effort at all. Legacy Gear swap all your gear from your Pub and voila! You can run Ranked again in Full Reaver on your Imp.

 

The Bastion has held up pretty well this season for Pub. I even got a Pub Ranked pop last night on my Guardian Tank, which is astounding because I can go days queuing in that role without a pop.

 

In past seasons, however, Pub Yolo has dried up by midseason so I created an Imp mirror VG/PT. I start the season out on my Pub, then switch to my Imp to keep the pops rolling. It's really the best way to queue in order to avoid faction imbalance in Yolo.

 

Grouped 4s are a different story. Doesn't matter what faction you play there as long as you can find four people with a common interest and like mind.

Edited March 23, 2015 by DarthOvertone

[ayiil]

Do not agree with topic starter. Although, couple of years ago switched to dark side, still have some toons on reps side and it's fun to have pvp there. Had my *** kicked in rwz and regs by republic players as well.

[Vashir]

Wow... really?

 

I have no idea whether the OP is correct or not in his points. I don't play on that server, and I don't think Bioware is going to implement any of his suggestions so that's all moot. But some of the replies, man...

 

No, Imps are not beings of pure malicious intent out to ruin PvP for everyone. When I played my Trooper I steamrolled teams of either faction the same way I steamroll them with my newer Op and Sin, by actually talking and coordinating and occasionally grouping with friends or other good players.

 

It's not everyone else's fault.

[Arunas]

Do not agree with topic starter. Although, couple of years ago switched to dark side, still have some toons on reps side and it's fun to have pvp there. Had my *** kicked in rwz and regs by republic players as well.

 

Yeah i also play on TOFN and haven't noticed that big of a difference. Pops are quick on both sides and you finish your daily in similar time. Games are not always balanced due to random classes and quality of players in them, and you lose to stupid stuff like node guard going afk on both sides. I can guarantee its not as bad as on other servers, as the ones I transferred from or were merged from had it far worse.

[SeanFM]

We must be playing different games... I'm on ToFN and play rep side the majority of the time. I see zero difference between the factions in regs. Sure there are some imp premades but funnily enough there are rep ones as well. I keep a win/loss record of all my matches (don't ask why ) and it's very even for me between the factions. If you're talking about solo ranked then I completely agree that it's dominated my imps. No question about it. Regs though? There isn't an issue at all in my eyes.

[AlrikFassbauer]

Snipers have to stand up out of cover to cast Snipe.

Gunslingers remain down behind their cover until their cast is finished upon which they jump up real quick to shoot it out.

 

Sounds like a good case of Republic>Empire to me!

 

I have different experiences with my Gunslinger. When my Gunslinger does his exquivalent to sniping, I guess (I don't have any Sniper, only Smugglers), he has to stand up as well, although his cover might remain active during that phase.

 

Or am I mixing some things here ?

[Sathid]

OP...it's time to roll Imp. Your Pub and its guild will still be there, but unless you are hardcore into RP, there is no reason to stick with a faction that has become a ghost town.

 

It will literally take you one month to level a mirror Imp to your main. By that time you can cap your RWZ and WZ comms so that your toon can score their Reaver Relics and Earpiece as soon as they hit 60. Then it's just a matter of grinding two Reaver Implants, which takes next to no effort at all. Legacy Gear swap all your gear from your Pub and voila! You can run Ranked again in Full Reaver on your Imp.

 

The Bastion has held up pretty well this season for Pub. I even got a Pub Ranked pop last night on my Guardian Tank, which is astounding because I can go days queuing in that role without a pop.

 

In past seasons, however, Pub Yolo has dried up by midseason so I created an Imp mirror VG/PT. I start the season out on my Pub, then switch to my Imp to keep the pops rolling. It's really the best way to queue in order to avoid faction imbalance in Yolo.

 

Grouped 4s are a different story. Doesn't matter what faction you play there as long as you can find four people with a common interest and like mind.

 

 

 

Bastion has Imperial premades eveyday as well,mutli guilds do it and at this point some are just being jerks doing it and the amount of Sins,Sorcs is amazing,,FOTM as always.