Save our Twinks

[AbishaTwink]

I see there have been others who have posted about twinks and their desire to see them remain. I too have a twink and would like to be able to keep my XP Locked characters as they are. I currently have 7 level 50's and have no desire to PvP at end game. Twinks are my escape from raiding and other end game content and I find it relaxing and simplistic and overall fun. I know I am not the only one who feels this way and I know anyone with a twink (and there is a large number of us) would like to continue enjoying the game with what we do. Also I know most twinks will agree with me, when I say, "We don't like playing with the levelers!" They are nice people but we do this for the challenge and so far both of the battle groups I've been in, I have discovered and joined a community of people who enjoy playing twinks and going up against other twinks.

I know its unfair to those who pvp to level and get a feel for the game, and I have come up with very simple solutions.

Merge the Warfronts into one massive battle group, and separate those who are XP locked, from those who aren't. I know some of you must be thinking, well that means that there is less people to play with. But, in reality all of us who are twinks wont be playing those characters anymore and the population for Warfronts will drop down significantly regardless of weather or not you remove the XP lock.

So all the people who have found a reason to enjoy the game or keep enjoying it once everything else has become boring or obsolete will most likely stop playing. I personally find no more interest in end game content and have come to disdain the end game population.

What most people don't realize about twinks is that there is ABSOLUTELY NO benefit in it for us, other than to have fun. We cannot upgrade gear, gain ranks and most of the time we invest hundreds of plat into these characters in order to compete in a simplistic version of the game, for the fun of it and nothing more.

Removing the XP lock will eliminate a unique and fun niche people have found for themselves and cause people to quit. I know several people personally who do nothing but play their twinks, I am slowly becoming one of those people. I feel my 50's are there to provide easy plat to sustain this hobby and nothing more.

My suggestion again is to keep the XP lock, and change the way warfronts work, so XP locked characters can only go up against other XP locked characters. I know this would also please us twinks as well as those who are leveling. The way to make sure Warfronts continue to queue at a decent rate is to add more shards to one Battlegroup. Either way, removing the XP lock will reduce the population and will cause people to wait longer.

I will end this post with a request: All you twinks out there, sign this as a petition to show our numbers and to add support to show Trion we are a community and would like to remain as such?

[nemesauce]

i agree with this

[Ambition]

I don't even have a twink and I think removing xp lock is a bad idea.

[Sapheros]

I agree with most of this. It brings an actual sence of balance and challenge when faceing anyone thats even remotly close to your gear lvl or vice versa. As for the merging into one solid battle group to even be able to seperate the twinks from the non-twinks is a long shot....pretty sure i read somewhere that even if they wanted to that they wouldnt be able to merge all of the battle groups into one large one. With that being said I really doubt that they will go back on this which in turn will severly lower the population that the lower brackets will have to pull from to form groups. Sad to say it but goodbye twinks hello 1hr queue times for the lower brackets. To everyone that QQ'ed about twinks have fun with your 1hr+ queue times and I look forward to your numerous QQ threads once you hit 50 lmao.

[Thorrand]

But, in reality all of us who are twinks wont be playing those characters anymore and the population for Warfronts will drop down significantly regardless of weather or not you remove the XP lock.

You mean drop more than it already has due to people not wanting to play with twinks while they're just looking to do something different than grind quests/dungeons?

I think taking out the twinks would actually be a positive thing for the queues. I know I'd play more wf's while leveling if I didn't have to dead with people who are perfectly happy 'pwning nubs'and ruining new player experience, as opposed to PvPing at 50 with the big boys

[Kyera]

You mean drop more than it already has due to people not wanting to play with twinks while they're just looking to do something different than grind quests/dungeons?

Yeah, that population certainly has dropped. I mean, my queue times went from hours to seconds when XP lock came along, and remained that way for its entire duration. It really ruined the great queue times we had before. Now I don't have time to clear an entire zone of quests between pops, and that sucks.

[Hartzekar]

The only arguement that twinks have for wanting to twink is competitive PvP. Two same-rank characters can pull out some of the greatest duels I've ever seen. At lower levels, a few select abilities are waaaay OP (Riftstorm, all of Saboteur, Obliterate), thus making any build not reliant on those skills super under-powered. At level 50, yes there are optimal builds. But I run 51 NB on my rogue cause it's fun, and still get some KBs even at a low rank. The grind ot R40 isn't long and terrible. Yesterday I ranked up twice with 2 prestiege pots, and got 40k favor. Not that hard.

[Kyera]

The only arguement that twinks have for wanting to twink is competitive PvP. Two same-rank characters can pull out some of the greatest duels I've ever seen. At lower levels, a few select abilities are waaaay OP (Riftstorm, all of Saboteur, Obliterate), thus making any build not reliant on those skills super under-powered. At level 50, yes there are optimal builds. But I run 51 NB on my rogue cause it's fun, and still get some KBs even at a low rank. The grind ot R40 isn't long and terrible. Yesterday I ranked up twice with 2 prestiege pots, and got 40k favor. Not that hard.

I guess all of my builds (okay, I do have Saboteur for griefing twinks) are underpowered then. t.t

[Uxor]

Save my twink and you get cookies.

[Thorrand]

Yeah, that population certainly has dropped. I mean, my queue times went from hours to seconds when XP lock came along, and remained that way for its entire duration. It really ruined the great queue times we had before. Now I don't have time to clear an entire zone of quests between pops, and that sucks.

try clicking the button that says 'solo'. I've never had to wait more than 20 minutes. But I can deal with that as a trade off to not play with people who can't hack lvl 50 wf's, so instead go pick on new players/toons who have no interest in min/maxing anything before level 50 where the real pvp is.

[Kyera]

try clicking the button that says 'solo'. I've never had to wait more than 20 minutes. But I can deal with that as a trade off to not play with people who can't hack lvl 50 wf's, so instead go pick on new players/toons who have no interest in min/maxing anything before level 50 where the real pvp is.

Is the implication here that I was actually leveling with other players? That's silly. Nobody wants to group for non-instanced content. In some cases, you might as well not even be in a group in instanced content.

[Thorrand]

Nobody wants to group for non-instanced content.

Maybe they just don't want to group with you. I have friends I quest with and join random people if we're on the same chain. Try being a little more social in an mmo.

In some cases, you might as well not even be in a group in instanced content.

Go solo an instance (that's around your level). let me know how that works out for ya

that got way off topic. I was saying maybe you weren't queuing right. Didn't they add xp locking and mercing in the same patch? ever think maybe it's the merc balance making the queues faster?

[Kadeth]

IF Trion wants to save twinks, fine but, do so with separate warfronts - Twinkland and normal PvP. Something like Black Garden T and Black Gearden. Then allow a level lock but, if you are locked or ever have been in the last 30 days on which you loaded that toon,, you can only go into the T warfronts.

As it is now, it is entirely disheartening for new players. Enter PvP, get killed withing 5 seconds of the start, respawn, get killed in 5 seconds or less again, repeat 2-3 more times, abandon warfront never to return, learn that getting to 50 PvE only take twice as long as if you mixed in PvP, quit game, cancel or never subscribe.

End result - Rift dies.

[Kyera]

Maybe they just don't want to group with you. I have friends I quest with and join random people if we're on the same chain. Try being a little more social in an mmo.

"Friends I quest with" is a little different than "random people", and I wouldn't place heavy bets on frequently running into random people as I went along. What I was trying to say, in a somewhat sarcastic manner, was that I was queued solo.

Go solo an instance (that's around your level). let me know how that works out for ya

Soloing a PvE dungeon, probably not, but duoing them is certainly possible. I've done that with plenty of instances. I actually duo'd Iron Tomb on mage/cleric (the mage was tanking). Also, warfronts are instances, and that's really the angle I was going for. You might as well not even be in a group with people half the time, given the unwillingness to communicate and lack of coordination.

that got way off topic. I was saying maybe you weren't queuing right. Didn't they add xp locking and mercing in the same patch? ever think maybe it's the merc balance making the queues faster?

It certainly has an impact, but given the frequency of players merc'd in the brackets I stopped in post patch (10-19, 30-39, 40-49), I'm skeptical that it's as big a difference maker as it has been (for me, apparently not for your times). Edit: Merc will probably help keep them from getting to the levels they were at previously, but if you're relying on mercenary for that, what is that telling you about the population as a whole?

[AbishaTwink]

The point of this post is to give Trion an idea about who plays other than the pissing and moaning people. Also I said SEPARATE the twinks so we can play by ourselves and leave the leveling people to their ways. The point is everyone can be happy and get what they want. Trust me, most twinks don't care to play and face roll. Thats a result of having gear. Also as I said its a simplified version and no twinks are complaining about balance of classes. We do it strictly for the fun of it.