/bow

[Kergan]

There was a time not long ago where you couldn't find a 50+ exp zone without a RD group in it. I was leveling up with the Nihilum tag so it was often frustrating to me personally but I saw it as a huge benefit to the server overall. I even told my brother when he still played to legitimately app to RD instead of us so he could level up and have groups (to be fair, he'd hit 60 quit and join us). But during that journey he'd have been an asset to other players leveling up ensure a decent geared monk was available to help grind some exp. I guess my point is, even with some hemorrhaging of their top end talent RD was still an important part to creating a sustainable R99 population.

The sad part about the exp nerf and subsequent lack of movement on an alternative solution is that for the most part, the largest negative impact has fallen on the exact subset of players it was intended to "help". At the same time, a lot of veteran players who have very little to do aside from level up alts when there are no raid targets up completely lost interest in doing so. So this is hitting the server from the top and bottom simultaneously. Combine that with the D3 expansion release and ESO release on the horizon and I see darker days ahead of us.

Despite us being on opposing sides I've always privately (and in most cases, publicly) supported RD and Heartbrand in his efforts to create a guild that supports casual raiding. Most people don't need VP loots to stay interested, raiding PoH/PoF/PoS, Chardok royals, Jugg runs for spells, etc and grabbing the occasional Tal/Fay/Sev would have been enough to keep a decent sized crew together provided they weren't spending 6 hours to make one yellow bubble of exp 52+ while simultaneously getting their shit pushed in by two bigger and better geared guilds.

I've tried to be patient and supportive, but we're rapidly approaching the point of no return.