Exile from someone who actually knows

First off a little background;

• Lead the first successful raid/pvp guild in eq2 on Nagafen for several years.
• First max level monk on a pvp server.
• First pvp guild to complete Exile.
• Other firsts but who cares about that crap.

Exile is what actually saved my guild and maybe even the server. At the time we had a lot of trouble maintaining enough people to complete some of the harder x4's because back then "Dispatch" mattered and being Qeynos we did not have this option. We still downed mobs but it took much longer and some were almost impossible with the gear strengths in that timeline. Freeport had a lot more people than us but somehow they just were not doing as much(no Templars as I recall). This is after all a PVE game with PVP flavor added.

We had friends on Freeport side we made just through friendly PVP. They too had guild issues and wanted another option but no one wanted to suffer through a reroll. Exile changed that.

You see the guilds at that time were afraid of exile because it was unknown. You may end up alone in exile being killed by all sides and even some of my own guild members did not follow.

What it did do was bring a chance to change the server. We could get away from the zerg of a faction locked group and allow a player controlled destiny. Exile allowed us to get more targets, more pvp, more excitement because you had to watch your back even more. It became even better when other guilds joined exile to fight us as well.

There was never a downside to being Exile if you wanted to enjoy the whole game. I have not played in years of course so I do not know what kind of **** storm it turned into after EOF, but I can say this much. Exile means a lot to those that came back to give this game another shot. If you don't at a minimum offer both factions all classes you will shoot yourselves in the foot and kiss this all goodbye in a month or so.

my .02

My toon was/is Darksavanna came from venny. Wasnt the first SK to max but wasnt last. To me pandamonium was the first exile guild. They did it for pvp and raid reason. At the time of exile comming into play they were the top raid guild on venekor. When they went ALOT from both Q town and Freeport would come to the call of them being out doing something to try and stop them. As time went on they eventualy transfered to naggy. The hole that was left was never quite filled. Alot of diffrent guilds tryed but failed.

I personaly had no issue with exile as long as when they pvped all they got was status and what not. I liked being able to to kill freeps who left town. I did vote no exile on the poles when they came out, knowing that daybreak will at somepoint have to go back on their word on how the servers will be handeled. Due to that i see pvp gear comming back flying mounts and so on. People will complain that they have to pve to get pvp gear. Its happening now. Later xpacs almost require flying and so on. With that i saw the comming of exiles farming them selfs for tokens like they do now. We have all seen it on live.

Dude, you're preaching to the choir here.

Unfortunately, the devs have left the building and this thing goes live as-is next Tuesday.

We're in bluebie territory now.

You know nothing Quantum Snow.

And I stayed in the factions while every single raiders went exile. I've seen what it did to those factions.

You all went exile to have access to all classes and dominate the raiding scene, it was also a big plus for a raiding guild to be able to kill anyone contesting their raid targets. Fact is, if youre a raiding guild and you werent exile you were doing it wrong.

What happened is the qeynos side of nagafen never recovered from exile, there wasnt a single raiding guild there up until RoK when I left the game. The raiding guilds on the freeport side were a joke as well, being a couple expansions late in their progression.

It's gonna be the same story here again if exile is in, every single raiding guild will go exile because being on a faction makes no sense. Do we all want that? May as well make a exile only server at this point. Hell, I'd play that.

I'm trying to help!

We must have played on different servers during ROK.

But where is the argument now? All classes are available to both sides via betrayal. Three factions are better than two. Maybe you were garbage back when you played on Nagafen, but I'm sure you'll do better this time around.

Looks like we may have to balance ourselves!

Who wants to start a Deathtoll Guild faction choice thread? Maybe make sure we spread ourselves out? Anyone? Nizzar?

I'm all for the group with nobody outside of guild approach. We can be our own faction within a faction.

-Peak

Sounds like we will have 3 factions after all...

It's not going to be the same story. If this server is claiming to bring back nostalgia then exile needs to be in the game, don't half *** it. You keep saying "The factions are going to be ruined if exile is in the game." You are also stating that all the "good" players go exile and leave the factions dry. Good players flock to other good players and the lesser get weeded out. This happens in any and every game.

Not having exile isn't the magical savior of the server. If anything all the "good" players will still just be in one guild on a overpopulated faction. Then that'll be the next complaint. "Qeynos side is too populated." "Its unfair to us freeports." "This said guild just watches the other fellow Q's die to Fps in pvp" and vice versa. Not having exile doesn't just magically make every one of these "good" players you're preaching about in your posts divide into guilds and start helping others get good. Most people just don't want Exile in the hopes they can join these players and get gear and "win" more this time around. Just be honest with yourself.

If you didn't attempt to make a raid guild or join a good one outside of the exile ones then you're probably just lazy. Honestly, the exiled guilds aren't and have never been the only good/decent guilds. They were just the only ones who put in a little effort and used their brains. The strats for the raids and instances are everywhere on forums and etc. Literally all the information you need to be a half decent raid guild/player is all over the internet. Someone eventually has to rise up as the dark horse and take the throne and whether you're one of those people is up to you.

I'm not opposed to Exile being a thing later on but coming from the EQ1 TLP servers and seeing how DBG responds to player feedback my suggestion would be to ask for an in-game poll after launch and hopefully have it implemented for DoF or KoS like it was originally.

DBG eventually folded on creating a log-in queue, instancing zones, revamped raid mobs that hadn't been adjusted in like 15 years, if its actually what a vast majority of people want and will keep people paying they'll do it.

At the moment it seems more of a Nagafen's Finest issue rather than a wide majority. Honestly i'd be more concerned about fighter mit, coercer charm, auto attack damage in general especially bows, shields being obsolete, OP focus effects (why are these even available?), exquisite chests dropping like candy in the dungeons, etc.

I think you mean Den of Madness. Pandemonium was never exile. We (DoM) went exile when it came out but at the time Pandemonium was the top raid guild. We leveled in exile from our 30's and eventually overthrew Pandemonium as top guild before they eventually got busted exploiting and many were banned. Raiding to us was always a means to an end. It was never about progression...but getting gear to be more competitive in PvP. Exile was a decision made solely for PvP reasons.

I don't know exactly when Havoc went exile but I think they might have been before us. DoM was just the first established exile guild on Venekor.

Most of the people who are anti-exile have probably never tried it. As you said, many failed at trying to run a guild in exile. It's not easy mode just because you have all classes. They probably also didn't play in the old days. PvP back then wasn't an endless zergfest. You got your PvP groups and you roamed around hunting other groups. Mass PvP gatherings were pretty rare and when they did it broke out into an epic tri-faction war. It was the best time in the game and the most fun I've ever had in a game.

Third faction is necessary for the health of the server and to ward off the doldrums of a bloated city faction.

ya you are right it was DoM iam sorry. The only time we really saw mass pvp like you said was around contested raid mobs.

Exile can thrive provided there is the population for a healthy 3 faction. If the numbers are not there keeping the factions alive is a better option. As much as exile does allow for the most pvp it also very much limits the resorces avilible to the "3rd faction"

plz devs put it back in the game plz.

Day 1 of Exile, iirc.

come on mr kander pleaseeeeeee

I really hope this gets over turned in the future....no exile hits you right in the feelz....if this was a true TLP server for PVP it would have started out with KOS and Exile enabled..gg