Explosivo said:
Hi, I have a few questions about the F2P community and I thought here would be the place to ask.
1. How's the community? Do people get along?
2. How is the pvp, balance?
3. My main is on EU server, would it be a big disadvantage not having acces to the heirloom items?
4. What can F2P accounts do? What can't they do? How does this affect the gameplay?
5. Anything I should know before making my character?
Thanks for reading
Hope to be joining soon!
Hi Explosivo! I'm going to try my best to answer some of your questions. Although I am the one who wrote the Getting Started Guide that Aty linked to, the following is just one person's opinion, so keep that in mind. I would say that I'm exceedingly active in the community though, so hopefully my perspective will help you. These answers will all also be specific to Aerie Peak, as that is where I and the majority of the people here on TwinkInfo play.
1) I can't speak for Horde side because I play Alliance only, but the community is very strong, active, growing, and very welcoming and friendly. We are essentially an open guild, and lots of people (myself included) refer to our f2ptwink chat as "guild chat". A lot of people set theirs to be green. We do 5-man premades constantly, both in WSG and for gear runs for people who are still gearing up. Yesterday alone I played all day long, like 16 hours (I am ashamed) and was perpetually in a full group. People can grow to care about each other.
2) PVP balance could be better, but it's not horrendous. There are certain classes that have a large advantage, and there are certain gearing imbalances that have to be overcome (though not as bad as the class imbalance). Neither of those things have stopped people from having an incredible amount of balanced fun though. Probably the biggest issue we are currently facing, however, is a rash of misanthropic players who have decided it is fun to roll level 24 characters for the specific, stated purpose of griefing the 20s and ruining the bracket they're in. It's pitiable, but we overcome it through the strength of our community and our commitment to continue trying to set up 10v10 matches with each other.
3) Unfortunately I couldn't speak at all to the questions about the EU server. Is there some specific reason why EU can't get heirlooms?
4) The things that F2P accounts cannot do are well documented in the Blizzard press releases, although some of those restrictions have softer edges than might be imagined. Instead let me talk about some of the things that a F2P account -can- do:
a) Group up, run dungeons, battlegrounds, and arenas;
b) Explore the world and test the limits of being a small character in a very dangerous world;
c) Pick up all the flight points to Stormspire in Netherstorm and buy exotic pets, just because you can;
d) Collect companions, hunter pets, tabards, and achievements that make lvl 85's stop you and say "How??"
e) Hunt for pieces for a pirate costume and run around as a band of swashbucklers;
f) Steal the Gurubashi Treasure Chest from under the noses of several duelling 85s;
g) Make good, deep friends who define your online experience with their awesomeness;
h) Have more fun than anyone would have thought possible when this experiment began.
Each of those are real-world examples that have happened to me personally or to someone I know.
5) I think the most important thing you should know is that you should play what makes you happy, feel free to ask questions or ask for help, and let yourself enjoy a challenge and don't shy from it. I look forward to seeing you around!
