See-saw
June 3, 2009 3 Comments
On my server, Order has been pounding the ever-living snot out of Destruction for the past month and a half. We’ve pushed into their city multiple times per week on most weeks. Yes, the stage one instance of the invasion is a bit lackluster, and yes there are bugs that need to be worked out, but that is not what I want to talk about today. Today, I want to talk about realm balance. I would love to hear from other players what their realm is like now, has been like, and the evolutions it has made. I find it interesting to see community ebb and sway as time goes on, and the way the mood strikes them as a collective whole. I clearly remember at launch order players screaming about how overpowerd, better looking, and just more well thought out the side of destruction was. Now, as I read through the forums, I see the players of destruction saying the same about order.
On the server of Ironfist, there has been a consistent and rapid decline of destruction players. Some of the premier guilds from them have completely vaporized, or dwindled down to numbers that make them completely ineffectual. Conversely, order has seen a huge influx of players, and I know that our guild has been getting more and more refined in our tactics and strategies. Cohesion as a whole seems to be reaching a pinnacle. Is this is because the more serious players are now left over in game, and all the “WoW tourists” have left? Maybe it’s because all the people who were playing destruction have re-rolled to new order characters, we’re over-powered now, remember? Some like to say that Aion is where the real PvPers are going, and everyone knows that destruction has the TRUE PvPers. There are as many different possible reasons as there are different people. No matter the reason, Ironfist has gone from Destruction dominated, with small Order sorties, to a complete butt-crushing delivered by Order. Sure, we still loose battles, but the WAR is soundly in our hands.
How goes the power struggle on YOUR server?
About Shadow
Shadow-war 
Darklands
Release till November – Order dominated, poor VP system stopped city raids generally
Xmas/Jan – Destro dominated, poor VP system stopped city raids generally
Feb/mar – Order dominated, a period of constant city stage 1 attempts
April – Deadlocked until the ‘gear on fort defense’ patch came in.
May – Destro dominated, most pushes stopped at forts with no resistance outside forts
Our server is strange. Order have the power & numbers and when they cooperate they easily dominate due to the lack of powerful guilds on destro side (only 1 or 2). However the powerful guilds on order appear to generally not like each other or the PuG’s and this has lead to their current state of play with no one alliance able to feild a warband outside a fort.
Decline of players on both sides. Destro bored of not seeing order outside a fort and order bored of no friends to RvR with outside forts.
I have no doubt that the PvE available in LOTD will bring them out again!
Kahla
Just wanted to let you know how things are going on Ironfist destro, from a Destruction PoV. I’m in Arsenal, which is part of the Singularity alliance. We have some…well, we have all the biggest and best Destro guilds with the exception of Bloodsworn and Alliance of Steel. The problem on our side – that is, the lack of numbers due to players leaving, is a combination of people getting fed up with the bugs, leaving for other games, real life issues, and general ennui.
As far as the bugs go, you know how buggy or broken some parts of this game are. You play a Shadow Warrior, after all 🙂 . I know a number of players have left for Aion/WoW/AoC/etc. The economy or relationship issues also take a number of people. Up until very recently, as you pointed out, Destruction had dominated the server. Order wouldn’t queue for scenarios, they wouldn’t defend/take BOs, and all they would do is turtle in keeps and forts. We’d lock the zones with little resistance, and then 20 million order would stuff themselves into the fort. It gets old, and a lot of players just said enough was enough.
At the same time as all of this was going on, Order was getting more and more people. During the Destruction dominated phase, there were a lot of Order leveling up through T2 and T3. Blitz coming to the server had a major impact as well – despite their small numbers, they can make a very large impact as you well know. Combined with this, Order as a whole was getting more experience in defending, attacking, and locking zones and forts. They started working together much more. I have a 40/40 Witch Hunter on Dark Crag, and because there is so much RvR everyone basically knows what they’re doing. Thus, on Ironfist, everyone was playing catch-up. And that brings us to the present.
Personally, I love playing on the underdog. My preference for solo/small-group oRvR doesn’t do well if Destruction has 3 warbands rolling around the zones. I love ganking and taking on groups of Order while outnumbered. In fact, I enjoyed getting you yesterday with that Universal Confusion in Praag by your warcamp. I’m hoping that, come 1.3, Destruction returns in force and, with Order’s new mindset, we can have some epic battles.
This is very true. Your perception of us “never queuing” and “never defending BOs” may be a bit skewed. It’s kind of how we view things now. It’s not so much of the other side not wanting to defend, it’s more along the lines of not being able to. There is just too much force being thrown at you to be everywhere. I totally agree with you on the small group stuff. I’m blessed to be in a great alliance “The Rebellion” that includes Enigma (super-large guild) and Blitz (small strike force). Running with Blitz crew is some of the most fun I have had in this game. Including smoking you when you don’t see me coming and don’t have UC up 😉 I agree, that 1.3 looked like it was going to be great for the re-emergence of amazing PvP between the two sides, but the recent withdrawal of career changes makes me worry all your destro buddies will stay away.