I'm a huge MMO PvP player. There is nothing else like it. I played planetside a long time and loved it. I liked other MMOs like WoW quite a bit due to the economy and whatnot, and the PvP was alright, even thogh when I played it was 1v1, 2v2 4v4, thats it. Hows the population on this game? Is their great customization? Great imbalances? (example, in planetside when they released the BFR it destroyed the game, making the BFR far too strong and ruining the game, along these levels of imbalance)

I'll go ahead and field this one.

The game is heavily PvP-oriented, so if that's your cup of tea, it's worth giving the trial a shot. Population is relatively low compared to most MMOs, and downright vacant compared to WoW, but on some servers there's still a strong community (probably made a little stronger and a little more community by relative size). In Tier 1 (Levels 1-11) and tier 4 (Levels 31-40), you can pretty much always find PvP (there were several city raids just last night). The middle tiers are a little harder, but it'll still surprise you.

Customization varies. The character creator is not profoundly robust, only a few more options than WoW, but it's decent enough. Armour and gear can be dyed to suit aesthetics there. The mastery trees are rather linear (you literally pick a tree and push the + button, for the most part), but there are three to choose from, and a wide variety of skills and upgrades from each that you choose independently.

As far as imbalance... That's a little harder. Any PvP game inherently has balance issues, since it's a competitive system and everyone always wants to milk whatever edge they can. From my last check, no imbalance is terribly severe (except in the lowest levels, when killing a healer 1v1 is a trial of patience; fortunately, that improves later). Some classes ARE inherently more difficult to play than others, though, but can still put out results if played well.

Originally posted by pbmark50

I'm a huge MMO PvP player. There is nothing else like it. I played planetside a long time and loved it. I liked other MMOs like WoW quite a bit due to the economy and whatnot, and the PvP was alright, even thogh when I played it was 1v1, 2v2 4v4, thats it. Hows the population on this game? Is their great customization? Great imbalances? (example, in planetside when they released the BFR it destroyed the game, making the BFR far too strong and ruining the game, along these levels of imbalance)

 The population is booming despite what detractors may say.  I play mostly on Badlands and it is always packed.  Customization...in what respect?  Skills/builds, gear, appearance of gear, etc?  There are ways to change gear appearance through the use of dyes if that's what you are getting at.  IMO there are no great imbalances, not every class is perfectly evenly matched in every 1v1 situation, but overall there is balance.  Of course there is always the endless free trial so you can get an idea about the game.  There are some huge changes coming to ORvR in the near future, playable Skaven, etc so it's a great time to get in.

Originally posted by Ramael

I'll go ahead and field this one.

 

The game is heavily PvP-oriented, so if that's your cup of tea, it's worth giving the trial a shot. Population is relatively low compared to most MMOs, and downright vacant compared to WoW, but on some servers there's still a strong community (probably made a little stronger and a little more community by relative size). In Tier 1 (Levels 1-11) and tier 4 (Levels 31-40), you can pretty much always find PvP (there were several city raids just last night). The middle tiers are a little harder, but it'll still surprise you.

Customization varies. The character creator is not profoundly robust, only a few more options than WoW, but it's decent enough. Armour and gear can be dyed to suit aesthetics there. The mastery trees are rather linear (you literally pick a tree and push the + button, for the most part), but there are three to choose from, and a wide variety of skills and upgrades from each that you choose independently.

As far as imbalance... That's a little harder. Any PvP game inherently has balance issues, since it's a competitive system and everyone always wants to milk whatever edge they can. From my last check, no imbalance is terribly severe (except in the lowest levels, when killing a healer 1v1 is a trial of patience; fortunately, that improves later). Some classes ARE inherently more difficult to play than others, though, but can still put out results if played well.

Any idea how many subscribers there are? I couldnt find it when I looked it up. I'm sure the game is still great though, esepcially with an expansion coming out in a year, Im sure till bring more people back. All I want to do is PvP, PvE bores me to death unless im getting endgame gear

As for exact subscribers, I truthfully don't have much of a clue, and I'd rather not wager a guess just now. Some servers are more populated than others but, especially on those servers, Tier 1 and Tier 4 can be just as crowded as many single areas of WoW (at least on my old server). The game is really designed so that you don't need two million subs to get some fun out of it.

I'd say give the trial a shot. It lets you get up to level 10 on any character, and retain that account for as long as you want before subbing. You don't need to buy a box for the sub; just the first $15 for your first month gets you the game. It'll give you a pretty good example of things. From what I've seen, Badlands, Gorfang, and Iron Rock seem to be among the more populous servers.

I'll try and add to what Ramiel said from my own experiece.

Everything he said is true, but in my experience you won't last without either being someone who finds friends easily in games or already have at least 1 or 2 to play with. Without people you enjoy the company of consistently the game can become a bore pretty quickly as all you'll ever do is PUG. PUG and premades as in most PvP games are vastly different as i'm sure you're aware, but the content is very repetitive and without people to play with most people get bored quite quickly.

Up to tier 3 is OK solo pugging, but you have to have premades/a few folks to co-ordinate with by tier 4 otherwise you'll burn out pretty quickly unless you're a stubborn git (count me as one of those) due to the chasm between a lvl 32 going into tier 4 and lvl 40 Renown Rank 80's who you'll be fighting against, most of them in premades. Open RvR can be different depending on your class preference.

If you're the determined sort and make friends easily in games or already have people to play with you'll enjoy it, being a PvP person. If you're neither of those you'll get bored/frustrated when you get into tier 4.

Edit - Population is great on KaraK Azgal and Karak Norn, both EU servers; and also on Badlands for US servers, although it tends to have a few problems with over population/server stability. The other servers are pretty much dead in comparison.

Alright thats all I needed. Ive been dying to get into a good PvP MMO and Im very down to make friends and destroy some people.

As long as its easy to hit level 40, thats all im concerned about as well

I have always been a bit more of a PvE carebear myself. Mostly like exploring. Never really got into PvP when I was in WoW. In Aion I would have fun with the Abyss PvP now and again but even there I mostly played for the PvE of that game. WAR is the only game that has sucessfully made me not simply enjoy PvP but really want to play the PvP.

WAR makes PvP fun, ridiculously fun.

I started a rune priest last night and jumped into the Open RvR area at lvl 6 I was having so much fun that I wasn't even watching my levels and was just 2 bubbles from lvl 9 before I realized that I hadn't been picking up my new skills. It is that kind of ridiculously fun.

The game has some very innovative classes and mechanics. (Melee healer for one!) Because of it, and by the very nature of PvP games, good balance is difficult to pull off but Mythic has done a very good job in this regard. They have really gotten serious about balance in the recent patches. I haven't noticed any glaring balance problems since I have been back.

WAR is a great PvP game that has been improved significantly since release. If you don't mind PvP you may very well enjoy this game anyway and if you love PvP I think it will suit you perfectly.

Originally posted by pbmark50

Alright thats all I needed. Ive been dying to get into a good PvP MMO and Im very down to make friends and destroy some people.

As long as its easy to hit level 40, thats all im concerned about as well

Sounds like you'll love it then. 40 is easy to hit, 32 you'll get without even thinking about it doing nothing but PvP, 32-40 is quite quick any way you do it but you'll probably find yourself doing some PvE just to get the extra skills etc and be cometitive. Some decent gear in that range via PvE too. After that it's PvP almost all the way to 80 apart from the odd item here there that you'll need to PvE for.

Just make sure you get yourself in a guild and get used to the people in it by 32 and/or fill your friends list with people of the same mind set as you

Originally posted by pbmark50

Alright thats all I needed. Ive been dying to get into a good PvP MMO and Im very down to make friends and destroy some people.

As long as its easy to hit level 40, thats all im concerned about as well

 I'd agree with what others said, adding only...

I've not found the population lacking since resubbing. Most of the time in tier2 lately on one of the less populated servers, we've been having regular (every night I've played) fights with around 50 people per faction.

I'd also add about balance, it is rare to have a 1v1 fight in War. When you have 2v2+ things are very balanced and are determined less and less by class than by your decision making (who to attack first? are we focusng our fire? are we using range are terrain to our advantage?)

Now about getting to 40, that is not hard. But understand, you have a cap of R (rank) 40, and RR (renown rank) that caps at 80. R40 is not hard, RR 80 is a lot harder, BUT you'll have most of your powers by R40, and if you've kept your RR up to par with your R, you have many of those perks and start to feel like you are in end game.

If your a pvp centric player, no game I have played and I have played alot will giive you an in the face pvp smash like WAR does. It is in my opinion the best pvp game that involves an avatar, otherwise I say Eve online. I currently am not playing WAR so you can feel free to jugde my opinion accordingly as non fanboi.

I can send you a referral for 10 days trial for the full game, just post your email or PM me with it.