Need blue advice for future teams PvP server ruleset

[Aenor]

I'm posting this here because this has been discussed to death on the PvP forum and I'm looking for fresh ideas and perspective. Many of you would never take part in a discussion on the PvP forums because it's a giant flame/troll fest. So I'm bringing the discussion here, and I don't consider it out of place because I'm specifically seeking the input of players who do not play on the current Red99 server. It is my hope that an ideal teams PvP ruleset would attract numerous players who have no interest in the current free-for-all ruleset on Red99.

Regarding a future teams PvP server, Sirken stated on one of his twitch streams that all discussion on the part of the staff has been tabled until after Velious release. You can expect plenty of trolls to reply to this thread stating teams will never happen, but nobody on the staff has said that. I hope Velious launch is smooth and the current beta server will be left up to try out teams PvP rulesets.

The staff has further stated that they are considering dividing the teams on the basis of race (like Vallon Zek and Tallon Zek), religion (like Sullon Zek) or starting city. I've been pushing for a city-based teams ruleset but have run into some difficulty providing each team with all the necessary PvE classes. Here's what I've come up with:

Human faction:

Erudin
Qeynos (includes Surefall Glade)
Halas
Freeport

Evil faction:

Neriak
Paineel
Grobb
Oggok

Elf and shortie faction:

Rivervale
Kaladim
Kelethin (includes Felwithe)
Ak'Anon

The issue is that such a division would deny essential raid classes to certain teams. The evil team would lack monks and bards while the Elf/shortie team would lack shaman and monks. So here are some questions I had that I wanted to bring to the general community:

1. Are shadowknights a legitimate FD pulling class? I've never played a SK so I have no idea how they stack up to Monks as pullers. Evil I'm not really worried about because they will get monks once Kunark is released and Iksar are added to the Evil faction. However, what if SK's were the only FD class the Elf/shortie faction would ever get? Would that be game-breaking?

2. Would non-classic race/class combos like Halfling Shaman or Gnome Monk ruin your immersion? I really like the regional division above with one faction controlling Faydwer, Evil controlling East Antonica and Human faction controlling West Antonica. Each faction would have one city outside its sphere of influence (Rivervale, Paineel and Freeport), so that aspect would equal out. It would be very easy to know who is in your faction via racial division (humans/erudits/barbs on one faction (humans only in Surefall), elves and shorties on another, then evils. It's basically like Race War with elf and shortie teams combined).

3. If you just can't deal with the thought of non-classic combos, what would you think about the idea of making Freeport a wildcard city where all three factions could start? This would open up the bard class to the evil team and allow monks to choose the Elf/shortie team. Under this scenario I would recommend allowing barb shaman to start in freeport as well to give the neutral team access to the class. My suggestion would be to copy spell merchants and quest gives for levels 1-19 from Halas to Freeport, but make those renegade Shaman traval to Halas for any further questing/spells.

Since humans would now be on all three factions, the only way to tell who is on your team would be via player name color. My personal preference would be to simply bite the bullet and let halflings be shaman. Simply port all the halas trainers, shaman spell merchants and quest givers over to an available spot in Rivervale and change them to halflings with new names. I'm hopeful that the Elf/shortie team can get by with gnome SKs as their only FD class because that would save us all from the gnome monk. Thanks in advance for your input and let the trolling begin!

[Faerie]

It would be sad to see half elves on human team, especially when human team gets every class already. They should have to deal with being blind and vanilla lol. On live (VZ/TZ) half elves could only worship Tunare, which forced them all to start in gfay.

Cazic erudites on evil team is a great idea for RP purposes and kinda helps to balance things out by giving each team a single race option that starts in enemy territory, but does evil team really need more race/class combinations than they had on live? This would give them 3 out of the 5 necro races, and 5 out of the 7 SK races (including gnomes). Human team is already the most boring, it seems kind of unfair to take away their coolest SKs and necros and force players on that team to be human for those classes. If all the Nihilum types planned to go human team for the class benefits this would be okay... I guess it would work out either way, really.

Obviously elf team needs gnome SKs/paladins and halfling rangers/paladins. This goes without saying for any server, really. It would be good to see dwarves put onto another team (human I guess) because dwarves suck and I want to kill them.

The solution to elf team shaman is clear: Vah Shir, perhaps starting out on a custom Kerra Isle. This would also give each team the beastlord class, which isn't completely necessary but good for team balance regardless.

I dunno if dark team really needs bards. They already have what players consider to be the best race/class combinations possible for key classes. If they do need bards they should only be allowed human bards. Or maybe they could allow dark elf bards... you see tons of them all over anyway :P

[JPMorgan]

Make half elfs be able to be the classes that each faction lacks access to and put a half elf trainer of those classes in Neriak, Freeport and Kelethin.

[Faerie]

Originally Posted by JPMorgan [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Make half elfs be able to be the classes that each faction lacks access to and put a half elf trainer of those classes in Neriak, Freeport and Kelethin.

I think you mean human? Half elves belong exclusively on elf team [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[Quineloe]

Stay away from fixed teams.

[JPMorgan]

Originally Posted by Faerie [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I think you mean human? Half elves belong exclusively on elf team [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

While my own half elf would be on team elf, I think this would add a nice bit of integrity to immersion while solving the problem.

Bards/Shadow Knights: Half elfs are the only other race capable of wearing the Tier'dal armor. Does this suggest that there might be half-dark-elfs among the half elf population?

Monk: Half human, the original monk race.

Shaman: While I can't really think of anything off of the top of my head to support them being half barbarian, the fact that they start in Felwith as paladins does support that they might be half high elf. High elfs aren't all that much smaller than barbarians (same height as humans), and both have the concepts of justice and honor ingrained into their cultures. A little High-barb romance might not be that far fetched, despite each race's superiority complex.

[Quineloe]

What the hell is a night elf?

[JPMorgan]

Originally Posted by Quineloe [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

What the hell is a night elf?

Ah shit, good catch.

[Zoolander]

2 Teams would be more than enough with the current playerbase interested in this imo

[Rhambuk]

teams will be better than red.

still a fail server because, eq pvp is awful. goodluck though.....