I was attracted to this game because I thought it would offer a good balance of pvp/pve. I suppose one could argue that it does at higher levels, but what about the journey to the end game? Surely , rifts are a great idea. But in my experience they have been too few and far between. The abyss is available at level 25, but good luck finding any opponents around that level to fight once you get there. SO, I have come to the conclusion that I will not get a good pvp experience until I have obtained a higher level through pve, and that, Im afraid, i am burnt out on. I played WAR for almost a full year, had fun in pvp , but it was the lack of end game and decent pve that eventually got me bored...Where is a game with a genuine balance between its pve and pvp content? So then, what do you guys think could/should be done to help the pve/pvp balance of this game?

I'm not sure what the solution would be, but scenarios, or any form of instanced PVP isn't the way to go, in my eyes. You can't really do a system like WAR's with the stat-boosting and such because a lot of people level in the Abyss. You give them a stat boost it really doesn't give any incentive to do much else in any other location because your character's stats are increased in the Abyss.

Once the game's been out for a while and more guilds get more 50s I think it'll start to even around. I think a lot of mid-level (30ish) people avoid the Abyss because the higher levels frequent around completely dominating them. Once more people get to 50 and those high levels are preoccupied with other content, I can see more mid-levels actually getting more out of the Abyss.

Who knows.

 Increases duration, number of people allowed of rift.

And put a mark on the map when a rift opens, I find very annoying to have to check all the rift spawn zones just to see that the rifts are not there.

Nice suggestions.

I'm all for more rifts at lower level, and the addition of instanced scenarios (such as WAR). There are a lot of people who hate the fact that the PvP is somewhat "forced", so they'll disagree with the low level rifts.

I'd also love it if they increased the experience from PvP kills and make it a viable way to level.

 Imo...Make PvE servers. 

More frequent rifts would rock!! I've always felt they arnt accessable enough.

Increase the rift chances along with putting level restrictions in the areas to eliminate ganking. I feel this last step is needed to make the leveling process fun for all looking for fair pvp. Leave the abyss as is.

i don't know i'm guessing you're an asmodian like myself, and for what ever reason i see ALOT fewer rifts going out than coming in. and ours are always in far out places in the middle of nowhere. i have seen one good rift (belsulan) for us to get to, but puts us in a horrible spot,there is 3 or 4 elites right on the junction of the road(road has high cliffs so no long way around either) and several patrols before you even get to a more populated elyos area.

when i was in my 20's leveling i wasted so many hours looking for rifts that i never ended up finding, eventually i got disgusted and just leveled up on the island with no rifts just so i wouldn't go running around for hours when i see a rift message. i love pvp but i just wasn't getting much pvp at all pre-abyss so just tried leveling to get to the abyss as fast as possible.

i would also like to see them increase the amount of exp people get while in groups,i get so much more exp solo than i do in groups, even counting how much faster the mobs go down in groups, i still level up much faster solo. now its like they discourage grouping in the game (when not in an instance), the only groups i see in the abyss are the raid gankers that rape lowbies in the lower abyss.

Good suggestions...

I'd love to have rifts last longer and not have to search for the one that's opened in my zone.

Would make rift PVP that much more enjoyable.

Hopefully this is tweaked in the future -  I think this is a great idea

All of the above.

Right now, its 40+ levels of boring boring GRIND, in the hope that End-Game PvP is good. I just couldnt be f#@%ed wasting hours and hours. I kept thinking, dang it would be nice to pop into a BG for some fun! It wouldnt even need to give XP. Alas, no such luck. Rifting is simply not accessbile enough. So I stopped playing in the first month.

For a game thats all about PvP, it's a p1ss poor design to have players grind hundreds of hours in PvE just to get to it.

Well, battlegrounds is not the solution. The end result is the death of world PvP, as seen in numerous games already. If the price for open world PvP is to search a bit more for it, so be it.

The only game that has ever found any balance that I've seen is DAoC, which managed to balance both BG's and overworld pvp.  This was mainly accomplished because there were no (until frontiers) later level instances.  If they were to tilt this way, I would beg, no plead, to simply to a keep capture as in DAoC instead of the insanely childish ctf or free for all deathmatches.  I know it's personal opinion, but these simply seem to be put in there in an attempt to dumb down the game for fans of FPS style combat.  Just give us small instances for the first few levels so we have something to look forward to.  Then..the last 10 levels, only overworld. 

Originally posted by Xasapis

Well, battlegrounds is not the solution. The end result is the death of world PvP, as seen in numerous games already. If the price for open world PvP is to search a bit more for it, so be it.

Depends on implementation.

- Rifts show in map.

- Rifts to lvls 10 -20 too.

- More PvE instances and they should start at lvl 10.

- Higly increase the bonus/buffs to the FACTION that takes and own a fortress.

- Higly increase the debuffs for the FACTION that lose a fortress, yes im writing FACTION, not legion.

- More Guards / Towers to the faction that owns some fortress in related zone with more quests, etc.

- Fortress siege should open to attack ALL time.

- some new fortress with limit lvls, maybe 25-31, 32-39.

But never ever instance pvp with limit numbers of players, not that plz.

But ofc, its only my opinion  :)

Originally posted by mutombo55

...

For a game thats all about PvP, ...

Who say that?

Originally posted by abyss610

i don't know i'm guessing you're an asmodian like myself, and for what ever reason i see ALOT fewer rifts going out than coming in. and ours are always in far out places in the middle of nowhere. i have seen one good rift (belsulan) for us to get to, but puts us in a horrible spot,there is 3 or 4 elites right on the junction of the road(road has high cliffs so no long way around either) and several patrols before you even get to a more populated elyos area.

when i was in my 20's leveling i wasted so many hours looking for rifts that i never ended up finding, eventually i got disgusted and just leveled up on the island with no rifts just so i wouldn't go running around for hours when i see a rift message. i love pvp but i just wasn't getting much pvp at all pre-abyss so just tried leveling to get to the abyss as fast as possible.

i would also like to see them increase the amount of exp people get while in groups,i get so much more exp solo than i do in groups, even counting how much faster the mobs go down in groups, i still level up much faster solo. now its like they discourage grouping in the game (when not in an instance), the only groups i see in the abyss are the raid gankers that rape lowbies in the lower abyss.

I agree with you on all your points :)

Id like to see more rifts and less patrols. Asmo's do get screwed on rift locations in Morhiem which is a shame. But once you get into the Belushan Area finding a rift is easy and they put you in good spots. I feel the Abyss is perfect as is and i always find a fight.

I would definetely vote yes for a system with instanced PvP combat scenarios as an excercies for the "real" thing in Abyss.

The rewards would be comparable to PvE, outside of Abyss, and as such Abyss would not lose its appeal but game would contain alot more (consentual) PvP and that is only a good thing (aslong as it does not hinder the real PvP in Abyss, which it shouldnt if the rewards are less)

Originally posted by Xasapis

Well, battlegrounds is not the solution. The end result is the death of world PvP, as seen in numerous games already. If the price for open world PvP is to search a bit more for it, so be it.

Why would battlegrounds end results always be death of the world PvP? That depends ENTIRELY on how you design it.

If rewards in Abyss are much greater than it would still be preferable. However it would be nice to log in for an hour or and still be able to PvP (instead of PvE).

As posted above, I agree with this.  The only time instanced BG's have killed overworld pvp have been when people follow that dreaded WoW model.  WoW does many things well, but not pvp.  BG's could affect the overworld combat too as long as we're talking about keep take bg's