Feels more like work than play to me...

I really don't get it.. You don't have time to 'party/play/unlock' things, yet you expect to get them..? And you don't belong to a guild, yet you expect to get a good group for such organized things as the underworld?

I also think you're underestimateing henchmen. Yeah, ok, I've never been to the underworld. However, I'm on the "Ring of Fire" mission right now, and not once have I used players to 'complete' a mission (Did Iron Mines with 1 other player and 6 henchies, but only because we were near markis after our last infuse run). People call me lucky, however..

Thanks for the suggestions/replies from some of the nice people in here. And for the rest with your sarcastic comments/remarks, I'm tired of it. Please read all my posts in this thread properly before you start accusing me of wanting to unlock stuff in here. And if you just don't like what I wrote in here. Then please stay away and don't bother to read it, much less answer it.

To Citizen, You already said you never been to the Underworld. You can't bring henchies into it. Even if you party them and enter mission, they won't appear in UW for your info. You don't know the frustration of getting a group in Temple Of Ages. So don't assume.

Do I have to be in a Guild to play this game? If so, thats pretty ridiculous.

To Kymber, you got a few good points there. But rez skill is very important in a mission. If everybody died in it except you, you are expected to rez everybody. I'm sure you know what I mean. Thanks for your suggestions though. I had drop the rez skill when I go exploring with henchies. Its a little bit easier with an extra skill slot now.

To SpeedMann, yeap you are right. I'm pretty surprise to see the sarcasm I got in here with just one post.

Anyhow like I said, if you don't like my post, don't bother reading or ever reply it. Totally sick of it. Case close.

Your problem is not so much the game, but the complete idiots playing it. I think they should make pre-searing Ascalon extremely difficult to keep idiots out of the later portion of the game. Perhaps but an IQ test at the end. "Hmm... Well... Your academy final exams say that you're IQ is 70. You are legally a moron. We cannot allow anyone of IQ < 120 to pass."

I don't think the game should place any of the content out of reach to its target audience.

You sir, are lucky you're not european, cuz then, when u're finally accepted in a party, you cant go to the underworld. we NEVER have the favor of the gods. Ok i saw a burning statue ONCE.

A bit off topic, but it's kind of interesting to see how the different groups take the favor based on time zones. Usually when I get in from work, the Euros will have it. During our night, the Americans usually have it, and on our weekends, if I get up fairly early and play, the Koreans will have it.

whenever I have trouble getting into a group, I just make my own. Then I get to choose who live and who dies.. I mean who stays in the group and who doesn't.

Grind is different from practice. You learn when you practice, you develop communication, you get better at the things that you are doing. I've never had an issue atendning scrims, doing walkthroughs of maps before a match, practicing taking a machine gunner out of a tricky spot by banking a primed nade off a wall, working on the long throw to get a grenade in a window from across a plaza... that's skill based and involves practice.

Grind is not practice. Grind is doing the same crap again and again to amass the items that are needed to play at an equal level. I don't learn ANYTHING from my nth run vs Ettins, having them cluster around me and die to AoE, then going back and doing it again.

The game was advertised to entice people who wanted competitive play, skill not hours played - that's the truth of any skill based game. Don't expect to be brilliant the second you start a new game, but at the same time the fact that you are starting even with other means that skills aquired from other games port over, and you aren't starting at a disadvantage due to lack of time grinding - perhaps lack of time practicing, but that's different.

I enjoy PvE, it can be fun for the storyline and the cameraderie, trying to get through areas with different builds, but I also got this game for some PvP, and until I spend the time grinding to get the gear I need and running around "unlocking" skills I can't compete, regardless of how skilled I am (and by compete I mean at high levels - I can go in and play arena if I want, but that's not really the same thing.) There is little point in trying to make many builds as I just don't have the skills or gear now to carry it off but that has nothing to do with "skill". Going online and practicing interrupting spells, working on getting the timing down for 1 second and 3/4 second spells is practice, that makes a good player. Not having a superior rune is a handicap that isn't fixed by practicing, it is fixed by grinding.

Hahahah.... you are funny. "Skill, not hours played" is the EXACT opposite of "there are benefits to exploring all aspects of the game and spending time in each". Implying that you can compete without grinding is stupid, and anyone who says that you can take PvP premades and be competitive is deluded - yeah, you can beat other guys armed with them, and you might come up well against the occasional guy with more gear, but you cannot play a decent game.

I mean, if I ran a gladiatorial ring, and explained that anyone could win, it's a skill based game - you'd imagine it being somewhat true, right? There's your enemy, he's in plate and armed with a sword. Here's your rock. Go kill him. Yes, it's skill based - and you might get the occasional idiot with armour who you can beat, but the fact is that two equally skilled people cannot have a fair fight if one has good gear and the other doesn't.

I get the impression that FPS folks like a good competitive and fun fight, while RPGers like to dress up in shiny stuff and beat people who don't have any gear, then pat themselves on the back and congratulate themselves on how well their gear works. Anyone who has the idea that you need to "earn" the right to have competitive gear is an elitist who is just scared that they won't be so special without theirs. I would never go into a competition expecting an edge because of my previous victories ("You won the olympic 100 meters? Well, you've earned a 2 second headstart today!"), winning a game of chess doesn't entitle you to a "super-queen" next game, winning a match in DoD doesn't earn you more bullets, grenades or life totals and winning in PvP shouldn't earn you anything either, except consmetic upgrades and the like, and that should be because you have all the skills at your disposal.

As 'funny' as you found that, it's still a valid point. I never claimed that the person who uses a L20 PvP character without taking the time to unlock the good gear would be a skillful or well-equiped character, I simply stated that they can, in fact, play without having done so.

Beyond that, it confuses me why people continue to bring up 1 on 1 situations as examples or analogies to explain their position in this game. There are no 1 on 1 competitions in PvP. Everything is grouped based (provided you do it properly, ie, don't join HoH with just yourself). So, to modify your example with a more accurate description, there's your enemy, he's in plate and armed with a sword. Here's you rock, and here's 3 other guys with rocks. Go kill him.

If you think that the guy with the sword and armor will win simply because he has a sword and armor, you're off the deep end. The person or people who employ tactics, strategies and skill will win, regardless of their gear. That could be the guy with the sword, or it could be the enemies with rocks.

Of course, the most accurate example is here's a bunch of guys with swords and armor and here's a bunch of guys with rocks. Do the guys with the swords and armor have an advantage? Of course. Does that guarantee victory? Most certainly not. The concept of guerilla tactics, for instance, is taking the enemy's strengths and making them his weaknesses. This is not so simply done in a world where a lot of logistics like weight are missing, but there are still things that can be done to offset the advantage. Force your enemies to fight single battles where they must overcome higher numbers. Find higher ground. Use feints and splitting tactics. All of these things will help remove that advantage and even the playing field.

Basically, at the end of the day, the team with better communications and tactical sense will win.

- Kymber

No, at high levels of any competition the teams are on a par that way. In DoD you can bet that my opponents have been practicing the maps, tactics and teamwork, and are all communcating on TS or Vent as well as the ingame systems. Slight imbalances like a better ping can translate into enough of an edge to win a match. If the opposing sniper has a tenth of a second edge on me I am probably in deep trouble - and I am not even a top ranked player.

http://www.csports.net/ClanStats.asp...&Prefix= True

See, I'm only ranked 708th according to csports. That's top 0.2%, but I think their rankings are inflated a lot by pub play, because I am not THAT good a player. Still, 708th out of hundreds of thousands is not too shabby.

Olympic events are won by 100ths of a second. High level play ensures ~evenly matched opponents - given this, the deciding factor IS gear. Thus, to play at high level requires grind. To beat a team of equal skill requires you to be at a reasonably similar level of grind, and since there is a cap to how much grind can be done you must, in order to guarantee competitiveness, grind to that max. I know about competition, and I intend to be competitive in this game as well, but I don't want to have to do mindless farming to get the gear required for top level play.