And you will now be ignored since you seem to be unable to answer a basic question.
Funny how many people like to deflect instead of actually debating. Sad.
Amazing isn't it? XD
I like to think I'm in the upper echlon of gamers here. I worked hard and paid very little to get my toons where they are - Rank 8's and the like. Yes, I'm not in the .1% but I don't want to be. But I digress. I can solo the old revamped areas, but I don't like it. I still run in a party because dying alone sucks. A lot. The other thing I want to bring up is that the trash mobs on the map can be defeated, but both the area mobs and dungeon mobs are so *INCREDIBLY* control resistant that any freezing, steal time, rooting, chains, etc... don't last. I cast something that is supposed to slow down the mobs so I can get to a safe spot and target them, but as soon as I dodge, I'm pwnd. They get to my spot almost as fast as I do. And that's after I try to slow them down. Not fun at all.
Varric the Cursed Dwarven cursed to be Tiefling CW Original Serenity Mostly Retired DC Tokarek Bearded Dwarven OP Tankadin JuiceHead Goofy Human GWF Member of H3llzWarriors and Limitless.
Some of you don't seem to understand that non tank classes are having a ridiculously difficult time trying to play IWD, let alone farm massive amounts of black ice to get the game somewhere back to playable for solo players. Saying we're lazy because we don't like getting murdered every time we walk into a tier 2 enemy is like slashing someone's tires before a drag race and saying they should've put in more effort to beat you tires or no.e
They could solve this by making elemental black ice gear a cheap or free upgrade for those that earned the original gear, since it's now useless for lvl 68-70 content, or make the draconic templar, and corrupted or purified black ice armor SCALE TO PLAYER LEVEL, while keeping the elven or alliance gear a long term goal. Or they could just make IWD's mobs lvl 70, so those areas are at least kind of playable.
I don't think any of that would happen; they went for a gear reset here to get rid of set bonuses they thought overpowered. The goal was to have people ditching their old armor almost immediately into the levelling process or be unable to continue, to even the playing field back out some. Of course, they screwed it up by having top-end PvP gear available right off the bat with old currency, but that is the way this game has always been: basic, game breaking oversights in every release.
I think the best solution would have been to leave the old campaign areas level 60, or 61, 62 what have you, and scale you down to 60 in them, as opposed to what they did with scaling you up. That would have been the best way to maintain the expected player experience in those areas; I imagine there was a concern that people would just straight up level up in those areas and ignore the new content totally, so they made them bonecrushingly difficult until you hit 70 in the new zones.
I am just now able to do stuff solo in IWD, after hitting 2k ilvl on my paladin. Before that, it was murder; now I can take care of business there, which is good, because that is about the most important campaign to be doing because of the requirements for elemental infusion.
Since module 6, if you have a character that is level 60 or above, no matter how powerful your character was and what top gears they used, the game will no longer give solo players a choice, you have to join a group or party, working together, or you die again and again alone. The mobs that you once can wiped out in minutes can now kick your butt in seconds. You are still able to grind your character to level 70 alone with ease but after that, there is not much you can achieved without helps from other players. I don't know if this is a good thing or not since organize a good party is difficult and not everybody have the time to do it. Forget about pressing K to join a party because that usually didn't end too well and the time is waste. I hope they will make some change to mod. 6 so that solo player like me who had spent tons of real money on this game can still find the game enjoyable.
I exclusively solo except when required, and have had no problem at all. I can run through dread ring. Iwd, and Sharan dark dailies in about 45 mins, taking my time and looting every node. In a rush, 20 mins tops. Dungeons aside, which excluding the crazy boss one shots are pretty easy, mod 6 pve is cake
Such ignorate rude elitistim -sigh- wonder people like you tend to ruin the fun out of the game
No.
You ignoring my questions is rude.
You ignoring what I say and making snide comments, is rude.
You making up strawmen and thinking only about yourself and how the game affects you and not many other players is rude.
The poll on people that enjoy or dislike mod 6 is massively negative, most people on the fourms have shown negative opinions. Most people that can no longer solo and that is what they enjoy in the game being taken away from them and having people like You say "Well I can do it so you all can" is RUDE.
Don't even attempt to call me Elitist again. And that's bloody rich coming from someone that finds T2s "easy" while most people have issues with T1s.
Well get to 70 then get blue gear (do MH quest and offhand quest) then buy the 2 epic rings (new ones) and ofc the shirt and pants) insta 2k gear then farm eLoL until you get least 1-2 T1 gear then do VT/Kessel until T1 full (replace the epic ring with new assault rings) and boom your set to able to solo Dread and such not that **** hard
And ofc im not casual tbh lol im always on getting gears and grinding Boons (havent done Boons since MOD 6) for Paladins
we finally got what we were asking since like mod2 or 3 - challenging content, and ofc a bunch of lazy ppl want to ruin everything
on my pally i have done iwd quests, have done WoD prison solo dungeon, thats about all hardest parts of solo content, ok ppl who dont have gear might need to duo, but that is why u want to ruin game for everybody else ?
What's this we <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font>? I wanted enjoyable content, solo content, group content. Stuff that was FUN to do. There is nothing about Neverwinter post mod 6 that is fun. PvP is a stun stun stun peeing contest. Same as it always was. Except now the rest of the game is equally impossible to play as well.
eriously? first off the "expansion" is a joke. theres less content than there was before. half of the content that most of us had spent AD to open up is long gone or not usable any more (lol, vt, tuern, etc). the long term players at 60 have 0 dungeons to do that offer drops or experience worth having. three skirmishes! woohoo! oh what, two of them are disgusting to try at 60? awwwwww. no way to earn ad thats anything other than annoying,and the new map/s get old real dang fast.bugs left and right, <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font> queues, and horrible matching when you get into something. then gee, a nice little mail pops up. an hour ago (its now midnightish est). i think, hey thats cool as heck, lemme hook this up. nope. failboat. not only did i not get a chance to even see what the hell it was, but apparently the devs did such a lousy job ... again... at implementing anything that it turned into a scamfest... again. theyre dang lucky theres no way to get a rebate on money spent, or id be doing it. and i sure as heck wont be dropping another thin dime, even if things get "fixed" since whatever i would do with it is a waste if they decide top screw stuff... i mean "expand" stuff again
Just wait till 23rd when they open CN and other dungeons for T3 for (t2/2.5) that my big guess so more dungeons and hopefully soon mid 7 will have other campaign (prob different boons) ?
I'm with the majority of members here who feel that the game has been ruined by the complete ignorance of the developers in ignoring solo players. Some of us don't have the time to spend endless hours on the game and grind through the endless bull**** which this game has become. I see an early death for the game and suggest those who have had their experience spoiled just boycott the game altogether and if you have been in the habit of buying ZEN then cease, we need to send a message which they will understand, kill the cash cow.
I would argue it the other way around. Tailoring it to the uber-geared power-gamers has ruined the game for everyone else -- upwards of 80%, if the poll is accurate.
im not uber geared, my paladin doesnt even have full alliance set, i have 2 blue and 1 green artifact(all obtainable for free), blue artifact weapons, cons belt that costs nothing and rank 7's that cost like 60k max, if you want to cry then go play some game designed for 3yo
ppl cried about content being 2 hard in mods0~3, though then there were more bugs that those noobs used to complete them
How many casual players can beat T2s, well that's going to be even rarer, how long they play, etc etc.
Most casuals have issues with T1s, nevermind bloody T2s.
Go.
the casuals have 3 man dungeons, you dont need anything more than drops from there for a casual play, they just split content - epic for ppl and 3man for casuals, or do you seripously expect that ppl who dont put enough effort in game should still get same stuff as ppl who do put enough effort in game, kind of like these special schools where you get prizes for participating not winning
Challenging content always existed, it just required that you chose to challenge yourself by gearing your characters appropriately. The fact that you didn't as evidenced by this sentence shows that you CHOSE to be OP. Why choose to be OP if you don't enjoy being OP? MMORPGs are supposed to be inclusive so that the player base is as broad as possible, mod6 seems to have been designed to exclude a large number of player types in order to cater to a small bunch of players too lazy to swap out gear to tailor their game play to be 'challenging' (which just goes to show what a crock that argument is). The reality is that players who were OP previously CHOSE to be OP, they could have chosen otherwise but didn't (so they really weren't interested in being challenged at all).
a pile of bull****, whats the ffn point of getting that gear anyway ? if you find walking too easy cut off your leg instead of running/climbing. instead of getting better at it ppl want the game to become easier, ffin spoiled kids
Paladin Master Race
0
magnusolamMember, Neverwinter Knight of the Feywild UsersPosts: 82
You are wrong! Even for pve players who don't win a single match in pvp can get 80k glory and (supposedly once when it is "fixed") 27 seals of triumph and get a full level 70 epic stat that can give your character 100k hp, enough to survive many things to get your desired pve gear. Even the Grimm set is pretty decent and they can be have for a reasonable amount of gg pvp efforts.
There's another thing that dumb, if it was PvP gear it should only be useful in PvP. No way should PvP gear be better than PvE gear when playing PvE. If players want to play PvP and gear up PvP then let them but players who don't want to play PvP should not be forced to in order to play PvE.
The way out of this mess is to implement difficulty levels so that those who want to play a challenging game can go off and play with themselves in hard instances, and those who just want to have a bit of fun can do so without getting in the way of the elitists.
The content from 60-70 is soloable by all classes, the 5+ heroics by some good players as well. If you had powerful epic hear, you'll hit hard but be vulnerable. If you don't have good epic gear for that class, using the quest rewards provided supplemented with green drops, and you have higher survivability.
There's another thing that dumb, if it was PvP gear it should only be useful in PvP. No way should PvP gear be better than PvE gear when playing PvE. If players want to play PvP and gear up PvP then let them but players who don't want to play PvP should not be forced to in order to play PvE.
The way out of this mess is to implement difficulty levels so that those who want to play a challenging game can go off and play with themselves in hard instances, and those who just want to have a bit of fun can do so without getting in the way of the elitists.
It is not dumb. It is just how this game is designed. PvP gear can be used in PvE content just like PvE gear can be used in PvP. Nobody is forced to use PvP gear for PvE. Nobody is forced to use dungeon loot in PvP. They are just options and perhaps better options in different occasions.
0
magnusolamMember, Neverwinter Knight of the Feywild UsersPosts: 82
It is not dumb. It is just how this game is designed. PvP gear can be used in PvE content just like PvE gear can be used in PvP. Nobody is forced to use PvP gear for PvE. Nobody is forced to use dungeon loot in PvP. They are just options and perhaps better options in different occasions.
If you're using it in PvE it is by definition PvE gear.
No way should PvP gear be better than PvE gear when playing PvE.
It is not better for PvE, it is just easier to get at the moment.
When they put in the cost structure of PvP it was a lot... compared to mod 5 drop rates and availability. Now in mod 6, PvE gear is difficult to get and the best PvP gear only takes an afternoon of grinding for the glory (assuming you had a stockpile of the quest piece). I remember some guy in zone chat for grym 10v10 said, "I don't see why people with 50k hp PvP at 70." (Not talking about me btw), and I said because, "because it is the best way at the moment to get 90k hp..." The game flipped on its head with mod 6 in terms of where to get gear. Whether the flip is temporary or permanent remains to be seen, but at the moment grinding PvP is the way to go to get the fastest PvE gear....
Personally I think its sad. I am sure there was a way to give a challenge and Still allow solo players to play the older content at the very least.
I am disabled, and I cannot usually group because i never know how long I can play in any given moment before the pain forces me to take a break. Now I can no longer play the game at all. It is very sad that players no longer have a choice.
I have one of each toon now 61+ so there is nothing left for me to play really. I hope someday they figure a way to make both us solo players and you group players happy, but till then I am off to find another game.
Bye Bye Neverwinter, I have been around since beta and I will miss you.
aaaaaaand you dont, you are just plain bad, deal with it
im not uber geared, my paladin doesnt even have full alliance set, i have 2 blue and 1 green artifact(all obtainable for free), blue artifact weapons, cons belt that costs nothing and rank 7's that cost like 60k max, if you want to cry then go play some game designed for 3yo
ppl cried about content being 2 hard in mods0~3, though then there were more bugs that those noobs used to complete them
the casuals have 3 man dungeons, you dont need anything more than drops from there for a casual play, they just split content - epic for ppl and 3man for casuals, or do you seripously expect that ppl who dont put enough effort in game should still get same stuff as ppl who do put enough effort in game, kind of like these special schools where you get prizes for participating not winning
a pile of bull****, whats the ffn point of getting that gear anyway ? if you find walking too easy cut off your leg instead of running/climbing. instead of getting better at it ppl want the game to become easier, ffin spoiled kids
There's no need to constantly put other people down because you consider yourself a better player. You were doing this all throughout the preview forums when these mod 6 changes were still up for player review. You even advocated that the game should get rid of "lesser players". STOP IT. Not everyone is up to the same challenge. No MMO should EVER be only about the power-gamers out there.
Harper Chronicles: Cap Snatchers (RELEASED) - NW-DPUTABC6X Blood Magic (RELEASED) - NW-DUU2P7HCO Children of the Fey (RELEASED) - NW-DKSSAPFPF Buried Under Blacklake (WIP) - NW-DEDV2PAEP The Redcap Rebels (WIP) - NW-DO23AFHFH
My Foundry playthrough channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/Ruskaga/featured
There's no need to constantly put other people down because you consider yourself a better player. You were doing this all throughout the preview forums when these mod 6 changes were still up for player review. You even advocated that the game should get rid of "lesser players". STOP IT. Not everyone is up to the same challenge. No MMO should EVER be only about the power-gamers out there.
i dont consider myself a better player, i am a better player, and i became a better player by sinking hours in to the game, trying my best and failing over and over again til i beat it, sometimes spending 2~3 hours in a dungeon wiping til we did it right, and i dont want to get rid of "lesser players" i just think that there should be content that requires skill, for ppl who cant do that content there is easy 3man versions of dungeons
lvling is easy and can be done by anybody, 3mans are easy and can be done by everybody, tod campaign is easy and can be done by anybody, sharandar is easy and can be done by anybody, DR is a tiny bit harder and should be available for everybody, IWD, WoD is harder and need either a good player or a party, 1600+ content is harder and require a decent player and a decent party - content for everybody not just casuals like in mods 3~5 and most of mod1~2
ofc there is stuff that needs to change, but overall separation by difficulty is ok
IWD/WoD/DR/Sharandar now mean for lvl 70 (the new end game lvl). I wish they increased lvl require to access these zones so that under-geared players would not get in there, and get whacked in 1 shot. New zones like Shore/Rock/Pit/Spinward mean for lvl 60+.
I remember when the old T2 dungeons and CN were considered as very hard. And yes, "casual" players also whined a lot back then saying only premades of elites could finish them. Guess what? After awhile, even pugs of "casuals" can beat those easily. Mod 6 is just a reset button for a new start. It will take awhile for everyone to get used to it and beat it eventually.
A lesson from real life, the weaks always band together to survive. Thus, if you are not strong enough to solo, team up. No one stops or shames you to make a party. Heck, you could even make more friends from doing stuffs together.
Less QQ, more pew pew.
You say 4v5 is impossible? Cool story bro.
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magnusolamMember, Neverwinter Knight of the Feywild UsersPosts: 82
Call it PvE gear if you want to then, but you will have to call T1/T2 and Black Ice gear PvP gear if you're using them in PvP too.
I'm not too bothered to be honest. I just don't get PvP, it seems utterly pointless in an MMORPG which is supposedly about cooperative game play. It's clearly not about testing playing skills against other players because if that were the case then characters should enter PvP stripped of boons and with basic gear - or perhaps a selection of choices of gear (as it is it sounds like it's more about who's got the 'best/mostexpensive' gear)
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katbozejziemiMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 856Arc User
edited April 2015
Even after finishing the soul destroying grind in Spinward Rise and getting the artifact weapon the enemies in old campaign zones take 3-5 times longer to kill than before mod 6.
Comments
Amazing isn't it? XD
I like to think I'm in the upper echlon of gamers here. I worked hard and paid very little to get my toons where they are - Rank 8's and the like. Yes, I'm not in the .1% but I don't want to be. But I digress. I can solo the old revamped areas, but I don't like it. I still run in a party because dying alone sucks. A lot. The other thing I want to bring up is that the trash mobs on the map can be defeated, but both the area mobs and dungeon mobs are so *INCREDIBLY* control resistant that any freezing, steal time, rooting, chains, etc... don't last. I cast something that is supposed to slow down the mobs so I can get to a safe spot and target them, but as soon as I dodge, I'm pwnd. They get to my spot almost as fast as I do. And that's after I try to slow them down. Not fun at all.
Original Serenity Mostly Retired DC
Tokarek Bearded Dwarven OP Tankadin
JuiceHead Goofy Human GWF
Member of H3llzWarriors and Limitless.
I don't think any of that would happen; they went for a gear reset here to get rid of set bonuses they thought overpowered. The goal was to have people ditching their old armor almost immediately into the levelling process or be unable to continue, to even the playing field back out some. Of course, they screwed it up by having top-end PvP gear available right off the bat with old currency, but that is the way this game has always been: basic, game breaking oversights in every release.
I think the best solution would have been to leave the old campaign areas level 60, or 61, 62 what have you, and scale you down to 60 in them, as opposed to what they did with scaling you up. That would have been the best way to maintain the expected player experience in those areas; I imagine there was a concern that people would just straight up level up in those areas and ignore the new content totally, so they made them bonecrushingly difficult until you hit 70 in the new zones.
I am just now able to do stuff solo in IWD, after hitting 2k ilvl on my paladin. Before that, it was murder; now I can take care of business there, which is good, because that is about the most important campaign to be doing because of the requirements for elemental infusion.
Such ignorate rude elitistim -sigh- wonder people like you tend to ruin the fun out of the game
Drakeos Shadowbow - 60 Combat Pathfinder Hunter Ranger (Alt/retired)
Falados - Drow (Mez) Level 60 Trickster Rogue - Offically retired
Drakeos - Drow (Mez) Scourge Warlock/Druid (retired)
I exclusively solo except when required, and have had no problem at all. I can run through dread ring. Iwd, and Sharan dark dailies in about 45 mins, taking my time and looting every node. In a rush, 20 mins tops. Dungeons aside, which excluding the crazy boss one shots are pretty easy, mod 6 pve is cake
No.
You ignoring my questions is rude.
You ignoring what I say and making snide comments, is rude.
You making up strawmen and thinking only about yourself and how the game affects you and not many other players is rude.
The poll on people that enjoy or dislike mod 6 is massively negative, most people on the fourms have shown negative opinions. Most people that can no longer solo and that is what they enjoy in the game being taken away from them and having people like You say "Well I can do it so you all can" is RUDE.
Don't even attempt to call me Elitist again. And that's bloody rich coming from someone that finds T2s "easy" while most people have issues with T1s.
Good Day.
And ofc im not casual tbh lol im always on getting gears and grinding Boons (havent done Boons since MOD 6) for Paladins
Drakeos Shadowbow - 60 Combat Pathfinder Hunter Ranger (Alt/retired)
Falados - Drow (Mez) Level 60 Trickster Rogue - Offically retired
Drakeos - Drow (Mez) Scourge Warlock/Druid (retired)
What's this we <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font>? I wanted enjoyable content, solo content, group content. Stuff that was FUN to do. There is nothing about Neverwinter post mod 6 that is fun. PvP is a stun stun stun peeing contest. Same as it always was. Except now the rest of the game is equally impossible to play as well.
Drakeos Shadowbow - 60 Combat Pathfinder Hunter Ranger (Alt/retired)
Falados - Drow (Mez) Level 60 Trickster Rogue - Offically retired
Drakeos - Drow (Mez) Scourge Warlock/Druid (retired)
WTB Class Reroll please
Social skills and gear won't save you from instant death. Have you not been listening? Even the tanks with 110k health and buffs are dropping dead.
HTH.
Aelar Hawkwind - Archer
Karrin Feywinter - Mistress of Flame
Errin Duskwalker - Executioner
Darquess - Soulbinder
aaaaaaand you dont, you are just plain bad, deal with it
im not uber geared, my paladin doesnt even have full alliance set, i have 2 blue and 1 green artifact(all obtainable for free), blue artifact weapons, cons belt that costs nothing and rank 7's that cost like 60k max, if you want to cry then go play some game designed for 3yo
ppl cried about content being 2 hard in mods0~3, though then there were more bugs that those noobs used to complete them
the casuals have 3 man dungeons, you dont need anything more than drops from there for a casual play, they just split content - epic for ppl and 3man for casuals, or do you seripously expect that ppl who dont put enough effort in game should still get same stuff as ppl who do put enough effort in game, kind of like these special schools where you get prizes for participating not winning
a pile of bull****, whats the ffn point of getting that gear anyway ? if you find walking too easy cut off your leg instead of running/climbing. instead of getting better at it ppl want the game to become easier, ffin spoiled kids
There's another thing that dumb, if it was PvP gear it should only be useful in PvP. No way should PvP gear be better than PvE gear when playing PvE. If players want to play PvP and gear up PvP then let them but players who don't want to play PvP should not be forced to in order to play PvE.
The way out of this mess is to implement difficulty levels so that those who want to play a challenging game can go off and play with themselves in hard instances, and those who just want to have a bit of fun can do so without getting in the way of the elitists.
Use your companions.
It is not dumb. It is just how this game is designed. PvP gear can be used in PvE content just like PvE gear can be used in PvP. Nobody is forced to use PvP gear for PvE. Nobody is forced to use dungeon loot in PvP. They are just options and perhaps better options in different occasions.
If you're using it in PvE it is by definition PvE gear.
It is not better for PvE, it is just easier to get at the moment.
When they put in the cost structure of PvP it was a lot... compared to mod 5 drop rates and availability. Now in mod 6, PvE gear is difficult to get and the best PvP gear only takes an afternoon of grinding for the glory (assuming you had a stockpile of the quest piece). I remember some guy in zone chat for grym 10v10 said, "I don't see why people with 50k hp PvP at 70." (Not talking about me btw), and I said because, "because it is the best way at the moment to get 90k hp..." The game flipped on its head with mod 6 in terms of where to get gear. Whether the flip is temporary or permanent remains to be seen, but at the moment grinding PvP is the way to go to get the fastest PvE gear....
But, it isn't the best PvE gear.
I am disabled, and I cannot usually group because i never know how long I can play in any given moment before the pain forces me to take a break. Now I can no longer play the game at all. It is very sad that players no longer have a choice.
I have one of each toon now 61+ so there is nothing left for me to play really. I hope someday they figure a way to make both us solo players and you group players happy, but till then I am off to find another game.
Bye Bye Neverwinter, I have been around since beta and I will miss you.
There's no need to constantly put other people down because you consider yourself a better player. You were doing this all throughout the preview forums when these mod 6 changes were still up for player review. You even advocated that the game should get rid of "lesser players". STOP IT. Not everyone is up to the same challenge. No MMO should EVER be only about the power-gamers out there.
Blood Magic (RELEASED) - NW-DUU2P7HCO
Children of the Fey (RELEASED) - NW-DKSSAPFPF
Buried Under Blacklake (WIP) - NW-DEDV2PAEP
The Redcap Rebels (WIP) - NW-DO23AFHFH
My Foundry playthrough channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/Ruskaga/featured
Call it PvE gear if you want to then, but you will have to call T1/T2 and Black Ice gear PvP gear if you're using them in PvP too.
i dont consider myself a better player, i am a better player, and i became a better player by sinking hours in to the game, trying my best and failing over and over again til i beat it, sometimes spending 2~3 hours in a dungeon wiping til we did it right, and i dont want to get rid of "lesser players" i just think that there should be content that requires skill, for ppl who cant do that content there is easy 3man versions of dungeons
lvling is easy and can be done by anybody, 3mans are easy and can be done by everybody, tod campaign is easy and can be done by anybody, sharandar is easy and can be done by anybody, DR is a tiny bit harder and should be available for everybody, IWD, WoD is harder and need either a good player or a party, 1600+ content is harder and require a decent player and a decent party - content for everybody not just casuals like in mods 3~5 and most of mod1~2
ofc there is stuff that needs to change, but overall separation by difficulty is ok
I remember when the old T2 dungeons and CN were considered as very hard. And yes, "casual" players also whined a lot back then saying only premades of elites could finish them. Guess what? After awhile, even pugs of "casuals" can beat those easily. Mod 6 is just a reset button for a new start. It will take awhile for everyone to get used to it and beat it eventually.
A lesson from real life, the weaks always band together to survive. Thus, if you are not strong enough to solo, team up. No one stops or shames you to make a party. Heck, you could even make more friends from doing stuffs together.
Less QQ, more pew pew.
I'm not too bothered to be honest. I just don't get PvP, it seems utterly pointless in an MMORPG which is supposedly about cooperative game play. It's clearly not about testing playing skills against other players because if that were the case then characters should enter PvP stripped of boons and with basic gear - or perhaps a selection of choices of gear (as it is it sounds like it's more about who's got the 'best/mostexpensive' gear)
No, sir, I don't like it.