PvP: First Impressions of the Ettenmoors

I finally took Myndariel for her first look at the Ettenmoors. I'm not a huge fan of PvP in MMOs, mostly because I'm more interested in game lore than defeating other players (whom I generally consider as allies working towards the same story-driven goals). But I popped into Bree and there was a Sergeant-at-Arms with a request for Myndariel to visit the Ettenmoors so I thought, why not?

Glân Vraig

I'm glad I did. It's a pretty zone with a mixture of Trollshaws and Misty Mountain type landscapes. The starting area for the "freeps", Glân Vraig, was very nice and I was struck by all the NPCs with quests or pvp rewards to offer. Before I knew it, I had found a few solo quests and I was heading off into the open world.  I found a castle (Ost Ringdyr) with more quests and so off I went to fight some goblins who had stolen the food and drink from the castle. I was just about finished when I was pounced on by a giant spider who turned out to be a "creep" player with 75,000 HP compared to my 15,000 HP. I think I was dead in two shots.

Ettenmoors

If that's the kind of difference in stats we're looking at between pvp veterans and pvp newbies, it's going to take a lot of deaths and a lot of grinding to get good gear. That doesn't really appeal to me, but by the time I had handed in a few solo quests I had earned almost enough renown to get the first rank. Making a little bit of progress now and then - ranking up slowly - could be a nice change from normal questing or instances. I did feel a little guilty because there were a group of players requesting help to take back some landmarks that had been captured by the enemy, but I knew that without pvp gear I wouldn't have been much help to them. Maybe I should have still tried, even if I was just the bait ("oh look, easy kill!") to lure them out so my allies could defeat them. Or maybe I should do some more solo quests, get enough ranks to get some gear, and then I could be more useful. We'll see.

Steps of Gram

What I liked about the Ettenmoors:

• Beautiful large zone with lots of capture points
• A variety of objectives for both solo players and groups
• A variety of PvP and PvE objectives
• Persistent - always available, no queueing or limited duration etc.
• Ranking system and rewards

What I didn't like about the Ettenmoors:

•  Difference in gear makes it very hard for new pvpers to stand a chance