Picking a PvP server.

[Zhern]

<p>Guys I am trying to pick a PvP server. What are the population percentages of each side on each PvP server? We are not going to be picking the higher side. <img src="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/images/smilies/908627bbe5e9f6a080977db8c365caff.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" width="15" height="15" /></p><p>Example:</p><p>Nagafen</p><p>Qeynos 30%</p><p>Freeport 70%</p>

[Spider]

<p>Im a Vox player.  I only play Freeport side.  </p><p>Do not neglect that there is an exile population, too.</p><p>On Vox, Tiers 2-5 I find there is a lot more Freeport players.  In the end game, there seems to be a close balance though of Freeport - Qeynos - Exiles.  </p><p>You might want to decide what tiers your going to focus on.  On pvp, all Tiers 2-8 matter.</p>

[sprogn]

<p>Honestly, Nagafen.  There's always PVP in the areas you'd expect it, if you want to avoid it, just avoid the beaten track and you can.  Groups come pretty easily although L30-60 is a dull area at times, there's a good balance of PVP, Freeport seem to be a bit better organised and possibly slightly higher on numbers although this past week Qeynos have been fighting back - seen some great fights.  It's pretty dynamic most of the time.</p><p>You'll love it.  Come q-side on nags and give someone from Crusaders a yell...</p>

[Zhern]

<p>On Tiers, what do you mean? If you mean locking exp. We are not going to do that.</p><p>And yes you are right about me forgetting the Exiles. But I wouldn't think they would really matter. But guess I am wrong.</p><p>But on Vox what are the population percentages on your server?</p><p>Freeport 30</p><p>Qeynos 30</p><p>Exiles 40?</p>

[Spider]

<p>No one but certain Sony employees can give you a percentage of players.</p><p>Tiers, I mean T2-8.  T2 being 10-19, T3 being 20-29, etc... up to T8 being 70-80.</p><p>You may want to consider locking 'some'.  If you dont you will be competing against much higher geared and aa specced players. This is not a requirement, though, as you can just grind up to 80 asap and dive in.  If your new to pvp, this is gonna really hurt you, seriously.  T3 pvp is a GREAT place to learn the basics of pvp.  There is a great deal of tactics you learn in pvp in the lower tiers and you only expand on those basics in the higher tiers.  </p><p>On Vox, if your going to end game, the Exiles dominate the pvp field most of the time and have the better raiding record.  They dominate on both because they all concetrate in one big guild, are organized and well geared.  They watch out for each other a lot.  They can do this because Exiles are a mix of all races AND classes.  You can have Defilers grouped with Mystics, Rangers grouped with Assassins.  </p><p>The Exiles on Vox have a really strong hatred aimed at them from both cities, which is way cool because you would imagine they would and regardless of all of the flaming they get, their record and numbers speak for themselves.</p><p>There is so MUCH MORE to a pvp server than a PvE server you really want to know about.  </p><p>1. Big mistake every new player to pvp does: carry coin on them and lose it to an enemy player.</p><p>2. Everytime you slay an opponent you get better faction with your city (Freeport or Qeynos only).  As your faction goes up, you get access to special pvp Legendary/Fabled gear from certain city merchants.  This gear is some of the best in the game and does not require raiding to attain.</p><p>3. From Tier2 up, gear/spells are quite valuable.  On a PvE server, who cares about twinking a lvl 25 toon out with all fabled and masters?  On a pvp server, there is a LOT of players working on that or who are.  </p>

[Zhern]

<p>Well from what you are saying is that the Exiles are the lead in population for your server?</p><p>I understand that some people are stopping at 25 or 30 and locking their level. But that is something I don't understand, why do it. I guess I would do it to finish the content that was below my level. But once that was done, back to the level grind.</p><p>I am glad your telling me this, thank you.</p><p>I forgot that no one knows the percentage of evil vs good. Too bad the devs can't put that on their website. Because I would join the low population side to off set the balance.</p><p>I am going to check the server stats on the PvP servers. If Vox is the smallest one, we might come there.</p>

[valkyriepc]

<cite>Zhern wrote:</cite><blockquote><p> I understand that some people are stopping at 25 or 30 and locking their level. But that is something I don't understand, why do it. I guess I would do it to finish the content that was below my level. But once that was done, back to the level grind.</p></blockquote>Yeah, not to sound sarcastic because really im not trying to. But until you actually play eq2, you're gonna wonder why people don't just lvl and avoid locking. But in pvp in eq2 its a completely different game. Whoever has the most AA has the advantage. The difference between a player with 10aa vs a player with 25 is HUGE. Huge to the point its almost unfair. You get a few new abilities that said player of same said class won't have. Abilities that are almost overpowered to say the least (but all classes pretty much have OP AA final lines so it works out great). So once you get into the game and start lvling a character, you may go all the way to 80. But i garuntee your next character you'll take the extra time with. Spend the extra cash on, and lock your exp so you don't miss out on extra AA for your lvl. Or those Master abilities that just make all the world. I mean a toon running around with app2-4's vs a toon with masters is literally half as effective. 

[Mighty Melvor]

<cite>Zhern wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>Guys I am trying to pick a PvP server. What are the population percentages of each side on each PvP server? We are not going to be picking the higher side. <img src="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/images/smilies/908627bbe5e9f6a080977db8c365caff.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" width="15" height="15" /></p><p>Example:</p><p>Nagafen</p><p>Qeynos 30%</p><p>Freeport 70%</p></blockquote><p>Are you just seeking population ratios or overall population?  Like others have said, no one really knows the ratios.  All anyone can do is give a best guess.  As for overall population on the servers, they are:</p><p>1.  Nagafen2.  Venekor3.  VoxI'm on Venekor and my guess would be that Qeynos/Kelethin outnumbers Freeport/Neriak about 60/40.  Again, that is a guess.</p>

[Zhern]

<p>I understand and don't. I understand they are looking for an edge to beat the competition.</p><p>But I don't understand because that they will have less hunting choices because of level difference. If it was on Nagafen, I can understand completely, because of the population. But eventually you will be left behind. But oh well.</p><p>I did play on Nagafen when it opened up. I had a 47 Necro and 42 Warlock. Warlock was only a hunter and Necro was a Destroyer. But quit and deleted the toons after 2 months. The reason I quit were various. But looks like most of the problems they had are either hampered or gone.</p><p>Still wish they had some kind of keep take over thing like DAOC.</p>

[sokil]

<p>for a good mixture of pvp, questing and crafting I would pick Venekor. If you are only focused on pvp and do not care about questing I might suggest Naggy. </p><p>Disclosure: I am on venekor and I like it due to the fact I can normally find pvp while questing but it is not so much that I cannot finish my quests. </p><p>Sochi</p>

[Gaeus]

    I played Venekor, and made many friends there... But eventually went to nagafen, as of 3 months ago.  And, I am happy to have made the change.  For pvp purposes, it was the only choice I had, I play to pvp, and Venekor simply lacked the targets in my opinion.  Now, some may disagree as I said, this is just my personal experience.  I also found that on Venekor the pvp entailed more running than anything, and on Nagafen I get good fights more often.  The down side to nagafen is this, you better either be a scout, or a class that has some kind of runspeed enhancement because generally most are running in groups.  To avoid getting smashed by groups, as a soloist you need runspeed boosts.  Or, you just need to group often yourself.  But, in general, Nagafen was the choice for me.  Qeynos is the smaller team Freeport larger.  And, with Sarnaks I am sure FP will grow even more now with new players wanting to try a new race etc.

[Roald]

<p>The only servers I can talk about are Nagafen and Vox, and I quit vox several months ago so my info there may be slightly dated.</p><p>I left Vox because of its very low population, I came to nagafen, and even that server could do with even more people imo. You'll struggle to find PvP fights in the middle tiers on Vox, whereas there is a reasonable amount of PvP here on Naggy in those tiers. I could run around with track up for hours on Vox and not find a single fight in T5/T6.</p><p>About players, there are/were amazing people on both servers. The majority of my closest friends on Vox have come to naggy, but sadly a lot are on Q side. Skill level? Pretty much the same, but obviously just far more fights on Nagafen.</p>

[Spyderbite]

I have many friends on both Nag and Venekor and for the most part (there are exceptions on both servers) both the communities are great. I tried Nag briefly but found myself back on Venekor because my play style is not  24/7/365 PvP. I enjoy the risk of a PvP server, but, I also enjoy all the other aspects of the game as well. So, with a smaller community, Venekor was the perfect fit for me.Can't say much about Vox. I choose not to play on an exchange server because I personally don't believe that the ability to purchase items and money with RLD should exist on a PvP server as that really just makes it Wallet vs Wallet. But, that's my opinion. And, there are many who enjoy that type of play.Roll a toon on all three and decide for yourself. If you're making friends and enjoying yourself.. there really isn't a "best choice". <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[Radigazt]

<p>Personally, I find nothing less enjoyable than to be interested in PvP'ing on a PvP server and be unable to find anyone who is willing to fight you.  While there are other factors, I find the servers overall population to be the most important determinant.  </p><p>As for Q vs. FP vs. Exile population statistics, here's what I've noticed.  It varies like this.  Poor players, players that want to grind up without gearing out or really learning how to PvP, tend to roll/reroll on whichever side has more people, so that population bounces back and forth depending upon which crop is trendy at the moment.  The serious PvP'ers tend to pick a side and roll all their toons on that side.  When all the non-serious PvP'ers start flooding their faction, the serious PvP'ers tend to switch sides to find more targets, thus beginning to shift things back the other way into balance.  At the top tiers, a huge amount of serious PvP'ers go exile.  At max level they cannot be hit by anything higher than a white con, and most of their PvP is against green cons anyway, so they're just looking for more targets.  </p><p>So, if you're looking for protection by joining the larget faction, or looking for targets by joining the smaller faction, just realize that it changes.  It changes over time as the new waves of players fluxuates.  It changes over level as at the top levels you tend to get a ton of exiles.  </p><p>My advice, roll on Nagafen.  I've seen tons of players re-roll on Nagafen and love it, but I can't recall a single person I know moving from Nagafen to another server and not regretting the move and coming back to Nagafen.  Highest population PvP server, and in the end, that's what's probably going to matter to you too.  </p>