Last time, I suggested that The Lord of the Rings Onlineâ„¢: Shadows of Angmarâ„¢ PvMP should not balance based on the idea that the creeps will eventually (and then forever) be high rank, since it will take most people years and years to hit rank 9. I failed to note that freeps gets their comparable abilities, and more of them, in weeks rather than years.
But you notice that the high-rank stuff is not all that much better than the low-rank stuff. +2% chance to crit is nice, but it is far from epic. An ability you can use every five minutes or only below 10% health can be interestingly powerful, but it is not a major part of your arsenal.
So we look at the freep PvMP armor and equipment. Don’t get me wrong, this stuff is pretty nice. Not all of it is as nice as level 45 quest rewards, which is kind of an issue, but it is not all trash. Many “ideal” equipment builds include a few pieces. But you again need to be rank 9 or higher to use all of it. Even when freeps get 1000 reknown per hour, level 60 equipment will be available before 100 freeps in the entire game hit rank 9. Rank 9 requires a longer grind than getting all of WoW’s raid dungeons on farm status. Affording the items requires a separate grind in the dungeon that is available only when your team is winning in PvMP (same for getting the high-rank creep stuff). That is a lot of effort for a piece that you might stick on a cosmetic armor slot.
: Zubon