Nodewar Feedback

In September we got huge changes to the nodewar system and this is a feedback post mainly referring to how these changes are being received on the EU server. Please note that each region might have different opinions on certain changes and I can only accurately display how the community I'm interacting with is thinking about it. Everyone is very welcome to share their thoughts in the comments, just please make sure to stay polite and add your referred region because things might not be the same on your server.

My guild has tried out every capped tier to see for ourselves how they feel in general but since we've only been able to check out a few nodewars more feedback for specific tier caps would be very much appreciated, especially considering the tankyness of buildings.

The compiled information comes from EU diplo discords, interaction with nodewar guilds, EU guild tierlist and ~5 years nodewar experience

Nodewar areas

In all honesty it feels very random which node tier and membercap was applied to which nodes. Some of the most open areas (like Navarn Steppe) are T1 with 30 membercap while some crunched leftover like Sausans with many obstacles everywhere is supposed to be space for 85 members per guild. Also many nodes really got butchered beyond recognition while some unfair spots like the waterfall fort at the northeast of Mirumok node are still not cut out. Please don't just cut areas based on assumptions and ask actual nodewar players about the content they enjoy, also keep in mind not everyone likes the same. Variation is key, not every node needs to be wheelchair accessible but those with an open field should have only the open field and not one spot with advantage over all others. I personally really liked climbing the mountains at old Bashim and Cadry node area, would be a lot of fun with today's T10 pegasus but the amount of spots that give a weaker guild the chance to hold against a strong opponent because it's hard to reach was reduced multiple times without compensation. A guild who doesn't like mountains will simply not build on such a node but there are some who enjoy it so the option would be nice. We need a larger amount of nodes in general, maybe add the old system on having different nodewars on different days in the same area back in for at least some nodes because that way people could enjoy the areas they like without locking it to a specific tier.

Node size

Overall there is way too many nodes with 60+ size and by far not enough in the area 30-50, especially in the higher tiers. There's around 8 alliances on EU who can pull 70+ people for a nodewar, but with great variation in strength and they often dodge eachother. One 70+ node per day is enough.

The majority of active nodewar guilds/alliances can bring 20-30 people without issue, 40 on a good day and 50 if it's a more pvp focussed guild/alliance so this range should be the main focus with each tier available. Cutting out smallscale from uncapped nodewar was a bad decision as it locks out most guilds from content where they can actually use their gear. The average gearscore has increased greatly over the years so most active players are far over 680 gs, many who participate in nodewars are beyond 720+ even if they're not in pvp focussed guilds. Denying these players access to content where they actually see what they're farming their gear for either forces them to join in the few remaining hardcore siege guilds or make them stop enjoying pvp overall, which is definitely bad for the game. Enjoying uncapped nodewars shouldn't be a privilege for only the top 10 siege guilds and large scale isn't fun equally for every class so there needs to be a smallscale option, especially considering EU server performance isn't the best when there's more than 50 people involved in a fight.
The 40 man T1 are useless because nodewar beginner guilds can pull 10-20 people at best and are either too scared to build on a 40 man node or just get run over by some guild with more nodewar experience who can pull those numbers and likes to smash noobs. Please optimize beginner content to actually be playable by beginners, nobody who is starting to nodewar immediately has 40 people on call.

There needs to be at least one node of each tier and each size every day because guilds need options to find something that accomodates the needs of their members the best. Please don't lock and cut the content for people who enjoy nodewars just because someone could eventually get a node by sniping.

Caps and restrictions

Tier 1
The removal of HP drop down over time was a good change and definitely makes it easier for beginners to understand what's going on. Not being able to use flametowers on the other hand starts the fight at the point where the base is already defenseless and automatically makes it a base race, which is neither preparing beginners for nodewar nor making the fight interesting because there's no realistic chance to turn the fight around when the enemy is at your fort first. The gearcap felt ok but classes with heals/Hp reg have a big advantage so maybe turn down the tankyness a very little bit. Don't increase the AP since the base is already very vulnerable and definitely not fit for more damage or 40 man caps. Please add at least one flametower, better two because that's the standard for all other tiers, every snipeguild managed to figure out how flamers work and they are required for defense. Also cap the membercount at 15-25 so actual beginner guilds can confidently build on these nodes.

Tier 2

Thanks again for the removal of HP reduction. This cap felt the tankiest of all and a raid with good healers can even keep their rangers alive, this isn't realistic for any other type of pvp in bdo. As a next step for beginners learning nodewars it's ok to be a bit tankier overall since the addition of flamers and cannons makes the utility have some impact, but not getting killed by a full combo as a squishy class gives new people a wrong idea on how their performance will be in higher tiers. Damage to buildings felt ok for the 30 man cap we tried, flametowers are too squishy on this cap and for 40-50 people it doesn't work at all. It's a beginner cap, as for T1 there is no need to have 40+ size beginner nodes because if you manage to win a node with these numbers you'd be wondering why you can't participate in higher tiers of that size.

Tier 3

Overall too squishy. Some classes benefit a lot from this cap while others just become entirely useless, if you don't have good accuracy modifiers, range or iframes and an evasion passive T3 is just not very enjoyable because it's so specific. The HP being uncapped does help for some tankyness but close combat DR classes really struggle here, increase DR and reduce AP a bit. Buildings get shredded too fast as well, especially on 50+ caps. Also please allow elephants if this is the next step into learning nodewar.

Tier 4

There is no need for this to be gearcapped. We already have 3 capped tiers before this, rather make T4 smallscale (30-50 member) uncapped. The gear cap on this one did feel better than the others but only few guilds dare to place on a node that has such a large membercap. With this mass of nodewar participants certain classes contribute a lot more to the nodewar than others and the server can't really handle so many skills being spammed at the same time. The buildings did hold quite well against the amount of people smashing into them but the hwacha deals less damage than a single archer and the elephant dies too fast, so the fight is pretty much focussed on bodythrowing as many aoe classes as possible against the enemy tower while cannons shoot down rebuilds. If you want to keep the option of larger scale content with capped gear T4 seems to do the job alright (there just isn't many guilds on EU who enjoy capped content of 60+ size and we already have capped sieges)

Tier 5

Please add more uncapped nodes because this is the content many people are grinding for. There should be at least two size options for uncapped nodes everyday and only one over 70+ member size per day. EU has a lot of smaller guilds/alliances who are currently forced into capped content because they can't compete against a siege guild with double the numbers, even when working together with other guilds because they just have very small impact on a base. Having another uncapped tier with buildings optimized for smaller member size would be nice.

Noteworthy stuff

- Some classes like Shai rely on very specific gear that can't be used in any capped Nodewar

- If a Node Tier varies in member size over a full platoon of 20 people (e.g. T4 node 50-70 man) the buildings are not optimized for either end of member size so please adjust buildings accordingly

- Dedicated elephant riders are sad about having no job until T4

- It would be nice to see how many forts are built on a node before building time is over because there's no reason one node should stay empty while another has two fights organized on it with 5 snipes on the side

- Instead of introducing new caps over and over (that can and will be abused by experienced people) a nodewar gear set with some sort of customization like arena of solare gear could fix many issues, because there is no standartized gearcap that can accomodate the needs of all classes

TLDR

- Opinions on what's good nodewar might be different on different regions, please adjust changes server specific not globally

- Nodewar areas should fit the size of fight going on, best would be having different tiers in the same area on different days so everyone can fight on the "good" nodes without locking it for other tiers

- Specify node options so people can pick if they want an area with or without mountains and ask players about unfair locations

- There needs to be at least one node of each tier and size every day
- There's too many 70+ nodes and not enough 30-50 member options, especially for uncapped. What do we even grind for if all we can do is capped and why is there 40 man nodes in the beginner cap

- How are beginners going to learn utility if there is no utility (add flamers on T1, elephant on T3)
- Capped nodes need to be adjusted, speak to people from active nodewar guilds who have experience in specific tiers to tell what's good and bad or add fixed gear like in arena of solare where classes can customize things to their needs

- Don't be so scared of people possibly sniping that content gets ruined for active guilds because they're getting rolled over by siege guilds on the few nodes available

- Please make the amount of placed forts visible before building time ends


Thank you for reading the feedback! If you have something to add please comment, I'll check it up once in a while to note it all in one post. You don't need to agree with all points, you don't need to like me as a person or my guild but please keep it a civil conversation because we all want the nodewar system to be adjusted to have better content ^^

(also please correct errors, english is not my main language)

I Totally Agree! PA needs to address this.

Agreed! 

Very well articulated, EU issues are pretty much the same here in NA.

Outside of 2 or 3 guilds that can pull up to 70-100 players. The rest is between 15-40 unless your in a good alliance group that can pull more like 50+.

The sad part is that higher end guilds simply go out looking for content and will do T1 or T2.

I agree 100% they definitely need to drop player caps significantly especially on higher tier nodes. There should be a handful of 30 man T5's just as there should be 10-15 man T1.

100% Agreed

Agree with most points.

I can add one more thing. Didn't test much t1s (current t1 and t2) but I can tell all the other caps above are disgusting and hideous, to keep it clean here in the forum...
The way to build a shai or a valk is not the same way to build an archer or a ninja. Sure, you can swap chimera earrings for whale molars, that's all you get in customization. The whole idea is just broken. It's bad for all melee classes, apart from very strong hp regen ones. If this is meant for new players, you are not helping them understanding how to play their class or a nw, because the dmg ratio on those caps is very far from open world pvp or uncapped.

Idea: you don't need all these confusing caps that behave in the exact same manner since for all of them you increase both ap and dp but the balance between the 2 doesn't really change.
Consider making just uncapped and capped, without different tiers of the latter, by giving a choice of equipment YOU PROVIDE like solare. Give about 3-4 builds possible, so shais or anything melee apart from berserks/drakanias can enjoy capped nws (a content you PA forced on every guild/alliance who can't pull 70+) as much as archers on these caps. It doesn't make any sense to build all the classes in very similar ways, plus it's lazy.

And yeah give more small scale uncapped nodes, not just 1 on sundays...

If you really don't want to go for this direction, you had already siege caps, you didn't need to create others btw.

100% agree

also dear PA, last season you added/changed Gyfin Rasia Temple as a noncapped 30-man node because of player feedback. Why did you remove this type of node? Smaller guilds want exactly that: Uncapped small scale nodes. 

Totally aggree with all points

I totally agree with all Points!!!

I totally agree too!!!