Factions: A look at a flawed mechanic.

Delete duel of the houses? 0.o well Im not in an alliance, but it took me 5 non stop days to get 15k armor nerf duel of the houses and 15k armor in factions turns into an armor class just below FoW, only for the ridiculously rich.

Perhaps only each member of a guild can donate 10k faction per 24 hours? or something to stop farming for alliances.

That still won't hurt alliances like XoO with their 500+ members

in the end only those with the largest number of players and the most efficient means of gathering factions will win.
neither the number of players, nor any efficient way of farming factions relate to ANY SKILL on behalf of the player.

so stating that one goal of factions was to reward skillful play is a bitter lie.
I still can't see ANY reward for skillful play out there that hasn't perverted by farmers, or doesn't put me up against 1:1.000.000 odds like HoH, or GW World Championship.

Bottom Line: Play as skillful as you can, but don't expect ANY rewards.

/agree

Grinding here we come.

Two things:

-First, I think that having the Elite Missions being exclusive is a good thing.
-Second, I don't like how faction farmers can keep one team there forever. And I don't like how you can smuggle in others who aren't on the winning team.

even if you would redesign the smuggeling in a way that it would be no longer possible, one would still have the possibility that the Alliance is selling off guild memberships for short amounts of time; effectively achieving the same.

you got the money and the contacs, you will get in, one way or another. and if you know somebody who farms 10k a day for these alliances, you will find he is very susceptible to earning a quick 12 amber for slipping your team through.

and paying one amber to enter is really a small price...

...compared to regular means of entering elite missions...

...so this whole system IS dead already.

its just a room. A room with monsters in it.

but still, the fact that groups can have 12 players is annoying. Other areas should have 12.

you forgot to mention the highly sought after Ub0r cool looking items and the only difficulty setting which does not bore me to death.

Why is everyone complaining about the system? There's nothing wrong with it. "Boo-hoo, I can't enter elite missions because I'm not a farmer, fix it Anet!"

Well, time to wake up. Elite missions are made FOR hardcore farmers. If you're not one, you won't get a chance to play. And yes, it is fair. Look at Hall of Heroes. It's made for hardcore PvPers. If you're not top 1%, you won't get a chance to hold halls. Same thing with elite missions, anet is just catering to a different 1% of players.

So stop whining.

In my opinion it is not the same thing. You can TRY to get to HoH. You CAN even suceed if you have 8 skillful players.

Monopoly Missions are something truly different. You CAN NOT get in if you don't FARM enough.

I must admit the most flawed thing is the fact that after being smuggled in, as long as you never leave you can stay. There are more random people there than people from my alliance. (We have been holding house for a while)

i have to agree, in HoH you got chance, i've almost reached it 3 times with my guild, and my guild isn't even that good. but elite missions isn't gonna work out this way. maybe they should have something similar.. could help.

Please note that I said "hold", or "win" HoH. Anyone can get to halls by simply being on at ~3 AM EST and being persistent. Or just timing your wins with halls timer. You'll get that jump from underworld eventually. And then most likely you'll lose to a team that got there legitemately. Getting to halls isn't the measuring stick.

But yes, you do have a chance with a team of 8 good players. In fact, that's who wins halls: teams of 8 good players. And elite missions are held by alliances of good farmers. In both cases, the highest level content is accessible to the elite in their respective category. I fail to see how the two are different: just substitute "PvPer" for "Farmer".

the only minor detail being that Jeff Strain actually promised the elite missions being a reward for skillful players, NOT stupid farmers.

so I take the liberty of pointing that out.

the only minor detail being that Jeff Strain actually promised the elite missions being a reward for skillful players, NOT stupid farmers.

so I take the liberty of pointing that out.

see, there's a problem with this. the problem is it's a slippery slope. make 12 player groups, and they'll either a) wipe out everything that crosses their path, or b) you'll have to make zones more difficult to accomodate the larger group.

if you do (b), then you eventually reach a point where you can't *do* 1- to 8-man groups anymore, you get mobs that are so tough that it takes 50 max-level characters with huge coordination on teamspeak, specific builds, etc etc etc to take down like on WoW or Everquest.

no; some limitations are in the game for a *reason*.

eudas

Well, that's an entirely different gripe - anet breaking their promises and BSing customers.

But conceptually, I see nothing wrong with rewarding the farming elite.

I also had a vastly different idea of how this would work.

I thought alliance battles were going to determine who held towns. Almost like HoH.

They talked about more of a merje with PvP and PvE, so I thought we could lay siege to a town or something.

I'm part of a very friendly, but very casual guild. No faction farmers there.

Except that this game (Guild Wars) was marketed on an "anti-grind" plank. Now we see that these words were truly marketing words: hollow and meaningless.

There are so many other games out there that encourage grind: EQII, Lineage and WoW. Why ANet wants to go in this direction is mind boggling. Especially because they seemed to be doing so well catering to the casual/non-farming player.

Meh... I figure I'll do what I always did... PvP, farm for crafting materials for my armor and GvG with guildies. What I won't be doing is the elite missions. I won't be buying chapter 3 either if things don't change.

I see something wrong with that reward being access to entire missions.