Icereach (below lvl50), always depopulated?

Gargath · April 2023

I wonder why keeping the Icereach alive if there is constantly very low player numbers (single bars on all Alliances), when the rest "normal" campaigns GrayHost & Blackreach are always full, 3 bars, locked, hard to get inside.

WaywardArgonian · April 2023

The campaign lost its purpose when the stickerbook came out. Now it's only used for smurfing and ez emp grind.

fred4 · April 2023

Smurfing?

disintegr8 · April 2023

PVP zones do not have a purpose other than provide fun for those who enjoy the mode. I've been playing for over 7 years and drift in and out of PVP now and then. I've never been Emp and my highest Alliance rank is 31.

I've been in and out of Ravenwatch (Non-CP) on PS4 NA for the last 3 or 4 campaigns and have never seen any alliance reach one bar. There have only been about 700 characters in the campaign, including those alt toons run by quite a few people. While there aren't many 'great' battles, at least it doesn't have as much lag as the busy campaigns.

endgamesmug · April 2023

The less populated campaigns have much much better performance i recommend it, on the other hand of course hard to find fights as most in pvp pvdoor in my experience.

Marcus684 · April 2023

Gargath wrote: »

I wonder why keeping the Icereach alive if there is constantly very low player numbers (single bars on all Alliances), when the rest "normal" campaigns GrayHost & Blackreach are always full, 3 bars, locked, hard to get inside.

I probably costs ZOS very little to keep it running, while closing it would cost programming hours and anger the players who like it, so it stays open.

Also, Blackreach is only usually locked on all 3 alliances on PC/NA during the weekend prime time, and I can't remember the last time I saw any alliance locked on a weekday except for EP, which often locks during prime time, so in reality only GH is hard to get into most times. Ravenwatch is never locked and is nearly as dead as Icereach most of the time, so there's really no reason to close Icereach since leaving it open isn't hurting anyone.

Alchimiste1 · April 2023

In my opinion the under 50 campaign doesn't really serve its purpose anymore. u50 campaign's goal should be to introduce new players or people who have never pvpd before to that style of gameplay. However, before it completely died out it was just filled with rerollers who would just constantly level more character to stay in the camping. It kind of resulted in new or inexperienced players having to fight people who had been playing for years using golded out weapons/gear that they simply didn't have access to. So, in the end new players were forced to compete against a bit more experienced players, but they were also at a gear and skill (DB / meteor / psijic).

No new players go to u50 because they simply have a better chance in the veteran lvl 50+ no cp campaign or similar. Where at least there they don't have to compete with people that purposely level and build a certain way.

To fix it I would recommend doing something like placing a cap on the quality of gear/enchants. And also, maybe selling full pieces of u50 gear for ap. For example, a full set of lvl 20 handing's rage so that new players are more easily able to enjoy pvp and focus more on learning the combat.

Marcus684 · April 2023

Alchimiste1 wrote: »

In my opinion the under 50 campaign doesn't really serve its purpose anymore. u50 campaign's goal should be to introduce new players or people who have never pvpd before to that style of gameplay. However, before it completely died out it was just filled with rerollers who would just constantly level more character to stay in the camping. It kind of resulted in new or inexperienced players having to fight people who had been playing for years using golded out weapons/gear that they simply didn't have access to. So, in the end new players were forced to compete against a bit more experienced players, but they were also at a gear and skill (DB / meteor / psijic).

No new players go to u50 because they simply have a better chance in the veteran lvl 50+ no cp campaign or similar. Where at least there they don't have to compete with people that purposely level and build a certain way.

To fix it I would recommend doing something like placing a cap on the quality of gear/enchants. And also, maybe selling full pieces of u50 gear for ap. For example, a full set of lvl 20 handing's rage so that new players are more easily able to enjoy pvp and focus more on learning the combat.

Yeah they really need to sort out the power imbalance in Icereach if they really want it to be a true training ground for new players. Allowing twinked out vet players with fully leveled FG/MG skill lines in gold set gear to farm actual noobs is pathetic and drives new players away from pvp. I used to pvp with every new character in Icereach and its predecessors, limiting myself to only the gear that dropped from RftW boxes and trying to help out the new players by teaching them the basics of the Alliance War, but even I got tired of dying to the baby seal clubbers. I stopped because the population basically dropped to zero and all that was left were the twinks and 1 or 2 noobs that would pop in looking for a group, only to give up and leave.

Dem_kitkats1 · April 2023

Marcus684 wrote: »

Yeah they really need to sort out the power imbalance in Icereach if they really want it to be a true training ground for new players. Allowing twinked out vet players with fully leveled FG/MG skill lines in gold set gear to farm actual noobs is pathetic and drives new players away from pvp. I used to pvp with every new character in Icereach and its predecessors, limiting myself to only the gear that dropped from RftW boxes and trying to help out the new players by teaching them the basics of the Alliance War, but even I got tired of dying to the baby seal clubbers. I stopped because the population basically dropped to zero and all that was left were the twinks and 1 or 2 noobs that would pop in looking for a group, only to give up and leave.

That was my experience when leveling up a new character in Icereach. It was far more unbalanced than the main campaigns. Mostly smurfs grouping up, pvdooring, and boosting eachother against new players. New players simply cannot compete against golded out sweats in proc sets trolling them. I was very surprised at how toxic of an experience it was, actually, and have a new understanding of why new players are very hesitant in participating in PvP.

I would say that new players would be better off learning in the more populated campaigns at this point.

xMauiWaui · April 2023

Be fair, for Years it tooks longer to reach lvl 50 and New Player got more Time to go into u50 Campain.

Today, you reach like every 5 min a lvl, and we dont get every 3 Days 200 new PVP Players^^