Observation: less teams playing in tombs?

So I'm running with the guys I usually tomb with, and in the past few days, we've been bumped ahead to the halls far more often than we've ever been in the past. I remember a few runs where we only had to fight 2 rounds before getting pushed into HoH, and there was one time we got there right after the unworthy round.

Is anyone else noticing this? I know it was possible to get pushed ahead in the past, but now it seems like it's happening more often. Perhaps related to "faction withdrawal" after PVPX?

Why do you think pvp "incentives" were placed in there in the first place?

the pvp x is over but it probably has to do more with that school just started a week ago.
last week my guild had ~5-7 people on at all times.
now we have like 1 maybe 2 if lucky. i wasn't on all week until today, and i usually play alot ea. day. just wait for the weekends or vacation time.

I've noticed that I've been bumped up after unworthy to hall several times late at night. Depends on when you play, being what time of day and what time of year.

I haven't been going to the tombs lately. I stopped after smiting teams and spirit spammers. Don't get me wrong, they are brilliant builds, that I never though of, wish I had, but I didn't. I also don't like fighting them. I'm not one of those "if you can't beat them join them people".... I just don't bother with it. I like balanced teams, that's how I like to play. But my way is not so favored so my PvP hours, are spent in random and team arenas and some GvG.

I can nearly count on going from the anti-whimp round to the Hall of Heroes if I do it late at night.

That's the thing though, I always do tombs "late at night", so all my observations have been done from that perspective and time frame. We've never been bumped this much in the past...

/shrug

School starting may be a big culprit, I guess.

Yes, this happened to my guild while doing a tombs run today, at 7pm Eastern. We went straight to Tombs right after he first match, which was a 1v1 Flawless. It was a pretty even fight in Tombs but I hate to see all of these Smiting/Healing Ball builds. While it is strategy, it doesn't take away the absolute cheapness of it. /shakesfist at Ascalon Electric Company and the other team we fought. At least we got revenge on AEC for beating us earlier by keeping them from winning.

I need to start PvPing more at night, then...

And, by the way, it's "fewer teams in Tombs lately". If you can count something it's a factor of 'many', if it's uncountable (such as grains of sand on a beach, of blades of grass on a field) then it's a factor of 'much'.
I don't mean to be a stickler, but a lot of people make this mistake and hopefully posting something will remind them... or let them know.

Every time i got to find a group everyone is looking for TS people only.. perhaps the lack of skilled typing teams is the reason less people join in, i know thats why i never do it..

Agreed... I as well is put off by people asking for TS or Vent... I been in great PUGs which weren't using voice and did great

Withdrawal of Faction isn't enough to kill Tombs. People PvP because they enjoy it, not because they're after unlocks. My guess is the overreliance on Smiting is causing the sharp decline in interest; it's why I'm not playing, and many others in my Guild aren't, either. Pretty sure we're not alone, there. Tombs is now the same thing, every round. If I wanted mind-numbing repetition and inevitability, I'd play PvE all over again.

I need voice com so that the surrounded monk can yell for a smiter to take the heat off of him. I don't smite for a team without voice coms. I'll prot or heal. My own guild has decided to goof around with a warrior build. *rollseyes* Since I don't melee AT ALL, I get to play healer for their latest one-trick pony.

Question... Why do people use Teamspeak, when Ventrilo has much better sound quality and is free? I don't get it.

Because the "fact" about sound quality is pure imagination and it gest down to personal flavor and brand. Don't start yet another holy war please. Both programs are fine and good as they are. Chose your own favorite but don't try to preach others.

/Edit:
What REALLY Is killing tombs is the elitist attitude.

Experienced group looking for monk, Rank 6+.
Bam. Yeah great. You can't get into tombs if you haven't allready been before. It is just natural for longtime players to lose interest in tombs. But with the current blocking of newer players you are killing your own income of fresh players and teams.
The Tombs are getting deserted this way but i doubt people will change.
I know of a few friends of mine who gave up trying to do tombs just because everyone expected them to be Rank 6 and higher.

1.) Teamspeak is also free. Whoever said it wasn't was misinformed
2.) Some people's microphones hate Ventrilo. And Ventrilo hates them back. I personally know of several people that cannot get their mic to respond well to Vent, while it works perfectly on TS.

/shrug

In addition to the other reasons mentioned, TS Server is much easier to set up. I opened the right ports in my firewall, forwarded the requests to the right computer on my network, and I was done. Vent server continued to mysteriously drop people every five minutes for no reason (and vent support was awful).

Additionally, a free TS server can man 16 people IIRC vs Vent at 8.

Finally, TS often has less lag in my experience.

Although I will grant you, I far prefer the sound quality of vent over TS.

-Diomedes

I personally think sound quality for vent is in your imagination. I have both Vent and TS and they use the same codecs, unless Vent can run them at higher sound quality, which would explain the additional lag.

I mostly use TS because that's what my clan and guild use.

Seriously people. LET'S NOT START ANOTHER HOLY WAR ABOUT TS VERSUS VENT. Damn, you made my Capslock get stuck -.-

The topic was about the teaming situation in tombs, not about which of those voicetools is better.

Under which codex are you comparing? Both of them can make the speaker sound like a fuzzy or garbled c-3po with someone standing on his nuts.

Only with vent i had to worry about feedback errors though, depending on setup ,while on TS worked better with fewer adjustments.