Raid gear, world bosses and Solo'ing and Small groups.

[Ernests]

That's what game is about, having fun WHILE aiming for some goal (gear, PvP skill and levels...)
The fun doesn't come from gear itself.
A MMORPG game where gear is given for free, money or soloing would die in short time.
Buy something more useful for your life with your credit card, or a single player game if you like that kind of videogame.

In fact, the progression is the largest problem of this game for several years. Sometimes I want to kick developers to wake them up. Come on, this is a multiplayer game! Every time, when players are looking for members to raid, 6 man, PvP festival or other group with common tasks, at first, for them are important your's gear and capabilities (AA). And for them is not important your's red trousers, minions or title of thousand picts killer. That is the truth.

A number of cases T5 and T6 items quality is up for negotiation and it does not give certain and sufficient improvements compared to T4. The current PVP progess in general is a joke. I have long ago lost any aim in PVP without development opportunities. Just look at difference between T1 and T3 PvP gear.

For example, comparison of demonologist T1 and T3 PvP armour set:
<<280 Armour = 1,1% reduction of physical damage;
<<93 Crit rating = 2,6% possibility of critical hit;
<<504 HP = enough for 1 grey hit or instant cast of your's opponent;
<<170 Crit damage rating = 4,6% increase of critical hits, when they occur;
<<155,8 mag damage = what will give +38,9 points of damage to Instant casts or +77,9 points to Fires of Gehenna;
<<90 Protection = 1,3% reduction of magical damage
<<998 Critigation Amount = it will not help you almost nothing. Because without Elusive Nature the benefit of it is negligible, but DD don't use this AA. + high level of opponent's Tenacity, even with T1 gear.

Full T1 set you can buy for 13 Gold and 98 silver without any PvP tokens.

More and more ridiculous is the difference between T2 and T3 PvP.
For example, comparison of guardian T2 and T3 set:
<<37 Armor = 0,15% reduction of physical damage (after 50%, this difference is even smaller);
<<0,3% lowering of Protection;
<<15 Crit rating = 0.37% chance to crit;
<<27 Crit damage rating = 0,6% increase of critical hits, when they happens
<<39 HP more;
<<+5,44 dps
WTF, you must spend hundreds and hundreds of hours for 0,1-0,3% improvement?!? Are you kidding me?

[Rathothis]

In fact, the progression is the largest problem of this game for several years. Sometimes I want to kick developers to wake them up. Come on, this is a multiplayer game! Every time, when players are looking for members to raid, 6 man, PvP festival or other group with common tasks, at first, for them are important your's gear and capabilities (AA). And for them is not important your's red trousers, minions or title of thousand picts killer. That is the truth.

A number of cases T5 and T6 items quality is up for negotiation and it does not give certain and sufficient improvements compared to T4. The current PVP progess in general is a joke. I have long ago lost any aim in PVP without development opportunities. Just look at difference between T1 and T3 PvP gear.
...
WTF, you must spend hundreds and hundreds of hours for 0,1-0,3% improvement?!? Are you kidding me?

Well if you think that vertical power progression in PvP is such a great idea, why don't you roll a ToS and start PvPing in old world blues... ToS even has proper differences between PvP T1 and T3 so you'd be busy for some time:
+ 214 magic damage
+ 120 crit chance
+ 121 crit damage
+ 664 health
+ 864 armor
+ 370 protection
+ 998 critigation

For the record, PvP development should focus on creating new opportunities for players to compete with each other, not vertical power progression.

As to PvE, some power progression is fine (and seems to be necessary to motivate players like you). Hence making everything available to solo players is not a good idea. But we've recently had two tiers of raid gear added on top of the old, with little to nothing done for people who focus on dungeons or even solo. It would be nice to have some corresponding upgrades for non-raid content as well.

(Nerfs to older raids are fine and alleviate this concern a bit, but overall they are a poor substitute. Progression should not be tied to one form of content exclusively.)

[Ernests]

Well if you think that vertical power progression in PvP is such a great idea, why don't you roll a ToS and start PvPing in old world blues... ToS even has proper differences between PvP T1 and T3 so you'd be busy for some time:
+ 214 magic damage
+ 120 crit chance
+ 121 crit damage
+ 664 health
+ 864 armor
+ 370 protection
+ 998 critigation

Could you express this super huge margin in percentage (real benefit in fights)?
Often people "Yeee! It's 300 Combat Rating or 100 Magical damage increase!" But they do not know formulas and don't understand how negligible these parameters in fact affects their ability in the battlefield.

[Rathothis]

Could you express this super huge margin in percentage?

In absolute terms, it's a bit less than 3% crit and crit damage, about 7% health, about 5% physical mitigation, about 4% prot. In relative terms, it's about 25% to 30% more on key stats (crit, crit damage, magic damage) than T1 has. How much of an advantage do you want?

[Belsvard]

In fact, the progression is the largest problem of this game for several years. Sometimes I want to kick developers to wake them up. Come on, this is a multiplayer game! Every time, when players are looking for members to raid, 6 man, PvP festival or other group with common tasks, at first, for them are important your's gear and capabilities (AA). And for them is not important your's red trousers, minions or title of thousand picts killer. That is the truth.

A number of cases T5 and T6 items quality is up for negotiation and it does not give certain and sufficient improvements compared to T4. The current PVP progess in general is a joke. I have long ago lost any aim in PVP without development opportunities. Just look at difference between T1 and T3 PvP gear.

For example, comparison of demonologist T1 and T3 PvP armour set:
<<280 Armour = 1,1% reduction of physical damage;
<<93 Crit rating = 2,6% possibility of critical hit;
<<504 HP = enough for 1 grey hit or instant cast of your's opponent;
<<170 Crit damage rating = 4,6% increase of critical hits, when they occur;
<<155,8 mag damage = what will give +38,9 points of damage to Instant casts or +77,9 points to Fires of Gehenna;
<<90 Protection = 1,3% reduction of magical damage
<<998 Critigation Amount = it will not help you almost nothing. Because without Elusive Nature the benefit of it is negligible, but DD don't use this AA. + high level of opponent's Tenacity, even with T1 gear.

Full T1 set you can buy for 13 Gold and 98 silver without any PvP tokens.

More and more ridiculous is the difference between T2 and T3 PvP.
For example, comparison of guardian T2 and T3 set:
<<37 Armor = 0,15% reduction of physical damage (after 50%, this difference is even smaller);
<<0,3% lowering of Protection;
<<15 Crit rating = 0.37% chance to crit;
<<27 Crit damage rating = 0,6% increase of critical hits, when they happens
<<39 HP more;
<<+5,44 dps
WTF, you must spend hundreds and hundreds of hours for 0,1-0,3% improvement?!? Are you kidding me?

they changed that to close the gap betweem new players and vets in pvp not so long ago.

[Korando-AoC]

they changed that to close the gap betweem new players and vets in pvp not so long ago.

And they did a great thing.
Asking for gear progression as PvP driver is totally wrong.
Gear progression is a PvE driver, for PvP it should be only a marginal driver, and gap between PvP T1 and T3 is perfectly fine as it is.
They should also increase the gain of AA through PvP - that is the main issue for new players at the moment - and eventually introduce some kind of PvP 0 set, since players that want to PvP are forced to start with PvE gear - well unless they spend money in store.. so there is an option and this isn't a big issue; Funcom needs money, that's acceptable.

[Ernests]

This is the reason why the game go down and it's population continues to decrease. Soon there will be stay only a few fans who are ready to repeat the same actions thousands of times for nothing without any development opportunities. Only then don't complain the PvP activity is critically low and need to wait long time for minis.
If developers want to earn money, they should be read a number of psychological study for the reasons why the majority of players playing MMO games. Interesting story and good animation is not only a precondition for the modern MMO game , but also opportunities for development. Mutual competition is the driving force for MMO games and makes it's live. Normally, when people want to play a completely equal footing with the enemy, then they play chess or some other game, not MMO games.

[Rathothis]

This is the reason why the game go down and it's population continues to decrease. Soon there will be stay only a few fans who are ready to repeat the same actions thousands of times for nothing without any development opportunities. Only then don't complain the PvP activity is critically low and need to wait long time for minis.
If developers want to earn money, they should be read a number of psychological study for the reasons why the majority of players playing MMO games. Interesting story and good animation is not only a precondition for the modern MMO game , but also opportunities for development. Mutual competition is the driving force for MMO games and makes it's live. Normally, when people want to play a completely equal footing with the enemy, then they play chess or some other game, not MMO games.

The reason why people left is not lack of gear progression, it's the combination of zero development for PvP, and the impact of a signup system which favours grinding and minimises the impact of skill (aka PUG queue) for the one form of PvP content which actually works in this game.

But if you don't believe me, look at what the devs of the one MMO that really earns money are doing: Here it is. (Note that even prior to this move, power progression in WoW minis was much less significant than in AoC, as gearing up via battlegrounds was much faster than via AoC's minis.) Better get your facts straight.

[Mellaus]

I cannot believe some people actually complain about PvP gear progression not being stiff enough.
As it is right now, it might be the best we've ever had, and by a margin. If only that entry PvP set was available for a few golds at lvl 0, as it should be ;(

As for PvE, raiding gear offering the best gear is how the game is built, so playing AoC and having a problem with that is like buying a milkshake and being lactose intolerant, and i know, there are some milkfree milshakes but they are not just not the same, most are even straight up horrible.

To make it short, to push people to form guilds and raids, there needs to be an incentive. If there is not, people just don't make the effort.
If you're not convinced, consider the state of PvP in AoC.

In the end, if you make AoC a solo game, then why would anybody play it ? I mean, for solo RPGs, no need to pay a monthly fee to play AoC alone when you can play the witcher 3 which is without question the best RPG out there.

As for people complaining about the achievement system, stop it, it's a must have in every game and it's awesome that we got it in AoC.

[Ernests]

To make it short, to push people to form guilds and raids, there needs to be an incentive. If there is not, people just don't make the effort.
If you're not convinced, consider the state of PvP in AoC.

What about PvP Festival, where PvP players can obtain the Gullah Slayer title or some sweety pets of their dreams? [irony]