I have had two nights as a freep in the Ettenmoors (PvMP). Wow, that is so much easier. The first night was as a 47, the second as a 48, and I will take another trip soon since I hit 49 last night. (No idea why the arbitrary “once per level until 50” thing. Probably because there is no xp to be had out there.) Both times we took one keep, I got about 100 kills with 10 killing blows, and I earned 2300 infamy. That means I hit rank 2 on my first night. That estimate I had about how long it takes a creep to rank? If I can keep this up, and I think I can do better, cut those times by 75%. I died 0 times the first night, twice the second night.
The damage is great on the blue team. Hunters have much better burst DPS than Blackarrows, and we have more of them. My Hunter likes to start fights with ~500 damage in a few seconds, so few things survive three seconds of concentrated fire from a raid. Hunters also track for free, which takes a talisman every time a creep wants it, and freeps can find everyone with two skills versus the one talisman per freep race. The buffs are very nice as well, especially when a Captain gives +50 to everything with In Defense of Middle Earth. Minstrels are great healers, again with burst versus the Defilers’ heal-over-time slimes. Let us not compare the value of a Burglar on your team to that of a Warg Stalker.
The great thing about the blue side is that the red team is suicidal. Creeps consider a 5-to-1 death ratio a win, which I suppose it is given the ease of mapping, rez circles, etc. that put creeps back in the fight. A Reaver charges in to pop traps, and he has a 25% chance of making it through the Hunters alive. Someone takes one step too close and sprouts arrows. Most conveniently, the warg packs reliably attack every five minutes or so, when Vanish is back up. They sneak in, pounce someone in the back, maybe get one kill, and 4-7 of them die before they get away. Freeps have three rezing classes; this is a good trade. Some are ignorant rather than suicidal, since a quarter of most raids will be alts, first-timers, and other easy targets without all their abilities.
On the red side, we always accused the freeps of farming rather than trying to take keeps. No, there is just a steady stream of creeps to farm no matter what, and you can only kill NPC guards so quickly when you always have two to five creeps streaming in.
Did I mention that the second night, I spent most of it in an out-numbered partial raid with no Minstrel? Hybrid healers were enough to keep the blue team alive, and massive DPS kept the red team on the ground. Not most of the red team, since many people would hang back and wait on the big charge (which came twice, hence two deaths). But the steady stream of suicidal creeps kept everyone busy and happy.
: Zubon