AVATARS? Why do they have the best gear?

A question that i've had for sometime now - What's the point of avatars having the best gear? They are a complete push-over, and can basically be boxed (seen them box'd/Botted) several times.. Isn't the Gear you earn suppose to reflect the challenge of the encounter? -- Ontop of there is really no contested to them, basically it's first come, first serve - Typically the guild that pulls them first is going to kill it, because lets be honest although u like to brag you kill avatars - They are completely 100% a joke, there is no challenge at all, We've killed them several times, didn't even DO THE STRAT, and still managed to nearly flawless the encounter, but yet they drop the best loot in the game, for most slots that they drop for.


I see they're adding instanced avatar's to practice the strats on here soon, but what you don't realize is that the issue isn't learning the strats, because 1. they're easy, and 2. most time, you can fail them and still win. I think contested at this point with the difficulty they are should be a alternative to equal gear to what you're already getting - kinda like oxxy, and klaak was... Cause contested really atm means, get your raid on at 9am, and hope the botters in your guild is around, or that the stars a-line, and everyone called out of work, for you to kill it, or run a insanely inflated roster, which is a waste of space, and no very efficient.


So anyways this isn't me complaining, its more of a confusion of why are they dropping the best in slots, when they are just as easy as EM mobs??? makes 0 sense to me, and really i don't even see the point of contested in this game anymore - The old avatars were enjoyable, and felt contested, but there was a bigger population, and a better player base, so it was way more competitive back then.


I'll prob get flames, honestly don't care, but really i think one of the 3 things would make this better.

1. Put avatar loot on HM mobs in instances, and then have avatars drop same loot, but a alternative to that same loot. the avatar instance ur coming out with should just drop same loot, it's same encounter..

2. Make them harder, so they can't be botted mid-day so other guilds have a chance to compete for them at normal hours.

3. Just get rid of contested all together, contested has been dead since EoF - I don't understand why all these yrs later we decided to bring contested back, which aren't really even contested. They should be called i got 2 groups on, and botted my 3rd mobs. (if sony seriously took a week, and tracked how many guilds killed these mobs with legit members, they'd be surprised, been on 3x servers, and on each one, they botted a group/2 for avatars to make sure no one got them first..... They must be hard right?) (not naming guilds)

The avatars are for the most part easy at this point which grants more access to them and allows for them to be more contestable. Sure it would be nice to see an avatar like mischief when it first came out every once in a while but we go with what they give us. You also need to have 20+ toons in range of the avatar so unless someone has some serious hardware I do not believe someone is boxing.

There is people boxing whole raids atm, with ISX boxer, and several other boxing programs, -------- THERE'S FULL BOTTING GUILDS on Freeport, aswel as Antonia Bayle. that i personally know of. Can't name other servers

I actually agree with the OP. On pretty much every server there is on guild who locks down avatars. Any maybe there is one other guild that occasionally poaches them when they slack, but generally it is my understanding this doesn't happen often. I was under the impression that SOE was going to address this, but you went in the complete wrong direction with your new arena idea. All the practice in the world isn't going to help more guilds kill avatars. This issue ISN'T PRACTICE. Its availability!

I understand that some people have the means and desire to log in at any hour of the day and kill avatars. And so rightfully they should be rewarded in some manner. But giving out the best gear on these mobs is just kind of dumb. They are a joke. They are often botted. While they are contested, their difficulty is no where near in line with the reward for killing.

What you should have done was put some sort of immunity on avatars for the guild that last killed them, At worst, the avatar farming guilds would only be able to kill every other individual avatar spawn. At best, if no one actually kills it by the near end of its spawn despawn cycle ,the immunity would wear off and they would be able to kill it before it despawned.

gear isn't measured by how hard something is, usually. it would be how hard something is to kill and how accessible it is. "contested" means harder accessibility to other players which mean gear goes up. best in slot gear gives motivation for people to try and get contested stuff. atleast in the ideal way
if you put avatar loot on HM mobs in zones, there would be no reason to kill avatars.
they are easy to kill/figure out because avatars have to be open to being Able to be killed by just about anyone. but just cause 1 guild locks them down per server isn't their fault, it's the servers.

The boxing on Freeport was always a bit an of issue while I was raiding there, a certain few boxers kept taking Hexapola and Kildrukaun before we could even get a pull in, which was an even bigger problem when they'd despawn when the zone crashed half way through. They had 2 people each running 12 toons iirc, or maybe one set of 12 and 2 people with 6. However this should not be the reason to totally change contested.

I'd love to have them much harder. This would mean that they actually are contested around the prime time hours for that server (If we couldn't 3 group them there's 4 or maybe 5 guilds in total on Splitpaw that raid similar hours that could attempt them) as well as meaning this new instance will be for learning complex strats and scripts, rather than appeasing people who claim they can never experience the content.

The instance however shouldn't have the same loot as avatars regardless if they make them harder or not, otherwise the mobs wouldn't be contested at all really. Putting the helmets, ears, belts, mount etc on HM mobs and possibly taking them off of avatars could be cool, but avatars would then become gearing at the beginning of the expac and for apps which is why I'd rather see it left on and made more common on much tougher avatars.

And ultimately if they don't have the best loot they won't be contested as much.

Then why make instance content, based off of Avatar gear (Which is the best gear in game) -- The DPS checks for Gen'ra HM, and Tav, are only going to be accessible by avatar geared guilds for the time being (even was stated by a few people in the guilds that have killed them), and that's a huge issue when you throw your logic into place, but as i figured the guilds who have them on lock will come in here, and make excuses about how there's no issue with the gear vs difficulty......... I'm not saying they should be HARDEST encounters in game, but they shouldn't be able to be botted as they are now.. (when they can be botted........ They are WAY WAY WAY to easy) - it's not a server problem, when the guild killing them doesn't even get the full-raid on either just lucky they have ISX(botting program) to bot what they're missing......... not saying every guild does it, but i know SEVERAL who do, who will never admit it..

last post was a reply to ucala's

considering the current avatars only have best in slot helms. 1 earring, and belt (the necks are bad, HM Oligar is better in most cases or the DC neck, the ranged items are meh, and the shields are even meh). I wouldn't count 3 spots Avatar geared players. and if those 3 items are stopping you from killing HM Gen'ra, I don't know what to do for you. but making Avatars harder wouldn't fix more guilds be able to and/or killing them. the same guilds that have it on lockdown would remain it on lockdown.

There's almost no loot left that is best in slot.

Some will yes, but i know some that have them on lock right now, because of botting wont anymore.. and that's a good idia Chronus came up with they, should only be able to spawn during prime time, which would make them more contested.. cause on a non-euro server spawning at 9am, is also not very contested, specially when i will stat it again is when those guilds using bots get them.. -- but you are gonna argue every point i say, because i've known you in game for several years and pointless to argue with someone who can never see another way.

no guild has avatars locked down By botting. it's just a matter of if they kill the avatar at 8am when some people have to work so they use bots, or just wait until the evening and go kill them when they have 20 real people. the difference wouldn't change. a case of this would simply be nagafen, now that onyx is gone people Are killing avatars, cause they are able to. but even when onyx was here, we didn't call list, we just waited until the evening, no one touched avatars at all during the day though. kept up cause they knew it was onyx's

Yes there are several that have them locked down from botting --- I've Physically been in the guild and have watched, and done it with them.

name one guild that always kills the avatars and no one else does by botting and botting alone. I've been in guilds that use bots to do avatars, but that doesn't mean they are locked down By the bots. like I said it's just a time thing.

Not here to name drop (not my style, and look in the thread you've already got some the answers you seek)... Back to the subject at hand...

Why is there best in slot, and required items for instance content, off avatars, which are a joke, that can be botted they're that easy.

[QUOTE I've been in guilds that use bots to do avatars][/QUOTE]

Right there alone, should never be able to happen.

so you can't name a guild...
also they aren't required to kill anything, 3 items won't make a difference

I can understand the issue with botting however on my server there are 2 main guilds that kill the avatars on 2 separate time frames (one eastern time zone and one Asian time) during our time raiding we have had a couple other guilds pulling the avatars. I personally don't think that there is an issue on the gear from them as they are but I may not be in the majority on this.

If by bots you mean boxed toons that are dead or doing nothing to start the script since there is a nonsensical 20 person requirement to start them.

I wont name a guild, because like i said that's not what i do --- I'm not here to get anyone in trouble... I'm here to get something fix'd that shouldn't be able to happen.... and you even without knowing admitted to it happening aswel, meaning maybe your guild didn't bot every avatar, but if they didn't have the people on THEY DID, so in all meaning that's how they kept it locked.