so last night a single guild managed to take emperor. while i have to commend some of their tactics i have to point out that even before i got off i saw a lot of behavior that can be constituted as an exploit.
Several DKs were using a bug that allows them to "bind" their standard to them and move it with them, and they were using terrain to use more seige engines than the limit allows, using enough distance from the keeps that only one or 2 of what was at least 10+ at all times engines present in the assault actually counted. both of these things are kind of not ok.
however i did see some genuinely clever things being used, they were extremely organized, and using such a large number of NPC fighters were allowing them to easily defend any location they wanted. it also genuinely seemed that the ONLY members were a few templars and alot of Dragon knights spamming Dark Talons and Dk standard, which while sad and proves a Likely Nerf coming to the class in the future proved extremely effective when used to wipe any attempt that would come through the many choke points the guild was intentially setting up.
overall the experience watching them seige a keep with little or no difficulty against a group that was at least 2-4 times their size shows to me a massive imbalance in PVP in terms of things like Mercenarys, Class abilitys, and issues with mechanics designed to keep the game fair. after 2-3 hours of them basically seigeing one location with any attempt to stop them failing due to Dark Talon+Dragon Knight standard spam, i got bored and called it a night...
at present the player who was making the attempt succeeded in becoming emperor, and if the behavior that guild showed in order to get her there is any evidence, that guild will result to any tactic, even ones that clearly exploit unintended mechanics, to keep that player in that position.
the proof of their work is evident right now on Dawnbreaker, a single guild took the campaign with no real opposition...
I play every class in every situation. I love them all.