the future of f2p

[Galvarino]

I've been casually f2p twinking for months now, but in the last two weeks I have yet to see a single pug group without at least one enemy 24. Since the alliance 24s show up perhaps once in every 3 or 4, I've seen (with few exceptions) massacre after massacre.

So my question is, is this just a giant run of bad luck, is it my own lack of gear and skill, or is the balance actually shifting drastically?



I got back into WoW because when I did, the f2p bracket had awesome pvp. Closely contested matches happened daily, there was a high ratio of skilled players due to the grind, and 24 twinks were an entertaining quirk which showed up occasionally. Now, with 24 healers showing up with increasing frequency, the contributions I make to a group can no longer be counted upon to effect the outcome of the fight at all.



I recognize that imbalance is the logical progression of a system like this, but is there any reason to hope that bgs will get better again?



no, I'm not switching to arena. I just don't care enough.

 

[R Prime]

BGs are pretty random amigo. Stick with it. Are you on AP? If not, you should be - you're not getting the full potential f2p experience.



If you are - then don't PUG - only premade. PUGs are mostly terrible these days.



As far as you personally I cannot comment to your skill or gear. Link some armories, take constructive feedback, get into the war.



And - this should be fun. If it's not take a break for a week or two.

 

[Galvarino]

My gear is incomplete, and I'm not on AP. If pugs aren't fun, then f2p isn't fun, not for me. What I want to know is, are pugs in the bracket actually experiencing a huge shift of balance, or can I expect normalcy again anytime soon? I'd love to do premades, but I really do not have the dedication to grind up a new toon just yet. Besides, I've heard nothing but bad news about AP alliance lately.



I'll certainly make an AP toon at some point, but if it's going to be a fiasco anyway, I'm not sure I'll bother. Might take that break you suggested.

 

[Cellebate]

I've noticed this huge influx of 24s on horde and was have been wondering the same thing.

 

[Preeztess]

So if you're not in a pug, it isn't fun and if you lose all the time, it isn't fun. Hate to break it to you but your kinda screwed.



1. Join AP

2. Win with Friends



...or



1. PUG

2. Lose with Strangers



Truth is that an AP premade will still win against 24's... Skill > Level.

 

[Galvarino]

So if you're not in a pug, it isn't fun and if you lose all the time, it isn't fun. Hate to break it to you but your kinda screwed.



1. Join AP

2. Win with Friends



...or



1. PUG

2. Lose with Strangers



Truth is that an AP premade will still win against 24's... Skill > Level.

that's exactly what I was asking, I broke 'it' to myself before I even started thinking about alternatives. The thing is, a month ago pugs were a joy to behold: they didn't suck, I didn't lose all the time, and they were more fun than I had at 85. I have virtually no interest in jumping into a giant rat race on AP, either. Especially not when the horde have such a head start.



also, are you kidding me? PREMADES > level

 

[Preeztess]

No rat race, you pug your gear from dungeons, start gearing up and put in a little time. Besides AGM, you're not really 'competing' against anyone.



Yes, grinding the BoA's sucks, but with Darkmoon and CtA weekends, it's not so bad... All in all no reason not to jump into AP.

 

[Omgwtfsap]

So if you're not in a pug, it isn't fun and if you lose all the time, it isn't fun. Hate to break it to you but your kinda screwed.



1. Join AP

2. Win with Friends



...or



1. PUG

2. Lose with Strangers



Truth is that an AP premade will still win against 24's... Skill > Level.

pugs are fun, if you have good players. To enhance your experience make and alt account lv a toon to communicate and q up with ap premades, or make an ap toon. I do it when i keep getting the same inexperienced players in every consecutive bg.



pugs aren't always boring. Ap is not the only answer.

 

[Galvarino]

No rat race, you pug your gear from dungeons, start gearing up and put in a little time. Besides AGM, you're not really 'competing' against anyone.



Yes, grinding the BoA's sucks, but with Darkmoon and CtA weekends, it's not so bad... All in all no reason not to jump into AP.

I really suspect you're not reading very far into my posts. I'm planning on making an ap toon, but not now, because I don't wanna repeat the grind, right now. I'm asking about pugs. You don't sound like you do a lot of pugs. Do you have any pug wisdom to share with me, or not?

 

[Galvarino]

pugs are fun, if you have good players. To enhance your experience make and alt account lv a toon to communicate and q up with ap premades, or make an ap toon. I do it when i keep getting the same inexperienced players in every consecutive bg.



pugs aren't always boring. Ap is not the only answer.

I like this suggestion, I might end up making a communication alt. That hadn't occurred to me.

 

[R Prime]

What is there to say? It's pretty random. Some are great - even comp and challenging/requiring teamwork and communication. Many are one sided GY farm-ROFLstomp-to-the-nuts. The draw of AP is premades and soft core porn. I mean premades. I don't think I can stomach many more pugs, and yes I have been pugging, and no - I have not witnessed a defined pattern emerging in PUGs nor have I charted my data consistently nor do I play at all hours.

 

[Omgwtfsap]

I've been casually f2p twinking for months now, but in the last two weeks I have yet to see a single pug group without at least one enemy 24. Since the alliance 24s show up perhaps once in every 3 or 4, I've seen (with few exceptions) massacre after massacre.

So my question is, is this just a giant run of bad luck, is it my own lack of gear and skill, or is the balance actually shifting drastically?



I got back into WoW because when I did, the f2p bracket had awesome pvp. Closely contested matches happened daily, there was a high ratio of skilled players due to the grind, and 24 twinks were an entertaining quirk which showed up occasionally. Now, with 24 healers showing up with increasing frequency, the contributions I make to a group can no longer be counted upon to effect the outcome of the fight at all.



I recognize that imbalance is the logical progression of a system like this, but is there any reason to hope that bgs will get better again?



no, I'm not switching to arena. I just don't care enough.

well you have an ally toon, what about a horde toon?

Are you complaining about loosing as an ally or a horde. Allys win most of the time because of hunters and prot paladins that dominate that bracket . In any case what is your play style?

Do you stick to the focus of the game ei getting flags, staying out of mid when required, mastery of your class. Ive been playing for 7 months now. Nothing has changed my experienced has improved because i learned more about my classes. As such as an hpally i can make the difference in a pug where i can dish out massive heals and keep my allies up enough to make that cap happen or that node takeover to occur. I have learned to go offensively when needed and avoid the enemy as a whole when i need to get to the enemy flag room. I also learned to sneak out when getting gy farmed and farmed some allys when they rezz at their own gy.



Are you complaining about just roflstomping the enemy? Massacre of what you or the enemy?



How long did you see 24s appearing to cause you to say that more of them have appeared? Did you have a bad week perhaps?

 

[Galvarino]

well you have an ally toon, what about a horde toon?

Are you complaining about loosing as an ally or a horde. Allys win most of the time because of hunters and prot paladins that dominate that bracket . In any case what is your play style?

Do you stick to the focus of the game ei getting flags, staying out of mid when required, mastery of your class. Ive been playing for 7 months now. Nothing has changed my experienced has improved because i learned more about my classes. As such as an hpally i can make the difference in a pug where i can dish out massive heals and keep my allies up enough to make that cap happen or that node takeover to occur. I have learned to go offensively when needed and avoid the enemy as a whole when i need to get to the enemy flag room. I also learned to sneak out when getting gy farmed and farmed so allys when they rezz at their own gy.



Are you complaining about just roflstomping the enemy? Massacre of what you or the enemy?



How long did you see 24s appearing to come and say more of them have come? Did you have a bad week perhaps?

I've been concentrating on playing a holy paladin, something I've done for over 2 years. I've never been a hardcore player, but I've seen plenty of pvp, and now I've seen a good bit of it as an f2p. It may well be a bad couple of weeks, but the pattern which I'm hypothesizing about is the unceasing influx of horde 24s since around the beginning of DMF a couple weeks ago. I'm "complaining" about the idea that balance in the bracket is slipping, which a couple of you seem to disagree with. All I'm saying is, there are suddenly 1-2 24s in every horde WSG pug, and my heals don't even count as a force multiplyer anymore because a group with 24s can mow through anything I've got in general engagement. Thus, I want to know if the pattern is real. So far, we have 2 people saying yes, 2 people saying no, and several people ignoring the question.



Also, I generally play ally, don't have any horde f2p toons right now.

 

[Fourtwennay]

Honestly, it's been said a lot already, but here I go to say it again.

Join AP. Premades > 24s. Unless you premade vs a 24 premade. Then 24 > 20s. Plain and simple.

If you want to stay on your current server, then the most I can tell you is good luck and stick with it. If you're a hpally you should have a better time than some others (such as myself, playing a mage/lock blows in pugs).



Oh yeah... Join AP.

 

[Trialaccountx]

Oh hey Ghoulshine, we are on the same server. I'm Trialhunterx. I have noticed more 24's aswell, although I do not have a problem with 24's unless its a partial 24 premade from spirestone. We should que together sometime. I guarantee I'll put your heals to good use and we will pwn 24's

My schedule is wonky, but I'd love to play with some more people from vashj. Hit me up

I have been pleasantly surprised with the trials on Vashj. I think the reason Vashj has more decent f2pers than other non-AP servers, is that its one of few pvp "recommended for new players" servers. So it draws in the easy AGM crowd who also want a pvp server.

What I'd really like to see is players on Vashj get the f2p global chat channel addon. I recommend it.



see you around

 

[Galvarino]

Oh hey Ghoulshine, we are on the same server. I'm Trialhunterx. I have noticed more 24's aswell, although I do not have a problem with 24's unless its a partial 24 premade from spirestone. We should que together some. I guarantee I'll put your heals to good use and we will pwn 24's

My schedule is wonky, but I'd love to play with some more people from vashj. Hit me up

I remember you. I'd be glad to queue together, I think you're still on my friends list: I'll be in touch next time we're online simultaneously.

 

[Omghax]

None of this is directed at anyone, just observations of the 20s from horde side.



I rolled a gnome rogue on AP yesterday so I'll see ally side of 20s soon enough but I can comment on Horde side Pugs.



- 24s distribution per match is random. Seems like allies have more as of late but it's probably due to my sporadic play schedule.

- People seem to remember the bad points more by nature, so a few days of bad PUGs will stain you option more readily than a week of good PUGs



- Random ally 24s are more "Farm" minded / kill F2P minded and easy to aggro kite. Chain sap an ally and he'll follow you like old yeller. (Ally pally named Trialkiller is a good example)



- Poorly geared / skilled players on both sides



- Poor attitudes are just as random as the pug class distribution.



- Class distribution is random.



- PUG'gin as a rogue or druid is best because you can hide in a tree when the farming starts at the end when its 2/0



- Stopping resses is the BEST way to counter farming. Farmers are there to get max HKs, by not ressings you are beating them.



Bob

 

[Yde]

None of this is directed at anyone, just observations of the 20s from horde side.

Same experience. Random things happen randomly on both factions. Bad games leave a lasting impression.

 

[Arknoodle]

So basically what this seems to me is a giant ass QQ thread.



Not to be a **** but from reading every one of your posts it seems like your upset that when you started F2P twinking on your alliance pally everything was a joke and you rolled through every single horde group with out even a challenge due to, let's face it the horendous lack of skill that used to be the horde.



Get over it. Horde is improving. Theres more 24's.



I don't know what kind of "Closely contested matches" with "a high ratio of skilled players" you had back in the beginning of F2P because every single day it was alliance stomping undergeared horde.



Sorry you can't run around roflstomping everything anymore and acctually have to play skillfully.

 

[Mrcer]

BGs are pretty random amigo. Stick with it. Are you on AP? If not, you should be - you're not getting the full potential f2p experience.



If you are - then don't PUG - only premade. PUGs are mostly terrible these days.



As far as you personally I cannot comment to your skill or gear. Link some armories, take constructive feedback, get into the war.



And - this should be fun. If it's not take a break for a week or two.

I am going to add off of this because everything he said is 100% true and I'd hate to make you reread what someone already said perfectly.





If you are alliance, PuGs are heaven for you. But you will have to wait quite longer than Horde will. If you are Horde, then you should be Aerie peak and be premading. Without premading, you are going to act like a chicken with his head chopped off.



Like he said, you will not get your full experience in the F2P bracket without rolling Aerie Peak; especially as horde.





EDIT: As far as 24s goes, they come and go. If your alliance, you probably won't struggle with them as much as horde would. Alliance's PuGs are usually full of better geared players(due to the patch helm) where as horde are not so lucky and normally have undergeared F2Ps. If you ever play as horde, you best chance of winning is to come over to Aerie Peak and Premade.