Drawbacks to being Neutral at higher levels?

[Zoln]

What are the drawbacks to staying neutral at higher levels?


Pros
-You can walk into any city without being ganked by the guards/other players
-Easier to find teams to join
-You can select which side to join in Battlestations

Cons
-No token board (does this really matter much anymore, do people even use them at 220?)
-Less orgs to join (there's what, 3-4 neut orgs per server?)
-Some equipment requires you to be omni or clan
-Some high QL SL items require 30,000 faction redeemed/unredeemed (ie Sword of Dusk/Dawn), which is apparently impossible as Neut (I read in another post here the cap for neuts is 25,000 faction)
-Raids can be a problem (usually end up on Omni raids) {thanks Ameliaa}
-Lack of Tower Wars (you can do them, but are much more limited due to the lack of Neut orgs) {thanks Ameliaa}


Am I missing anything? I'm specifically looking at level 220 pros/cons.

[Traderjill]

The only disadvantage that really ever bugged me as a neutral was the fact that neutrals, overall, don't do their own pande raids and, on RK2 at least, were stuck doing them with omni (won't go into hows or whys.. it just is what it is). Now that pande is soon to be instanced, I'm actually planning to dust off my 220 neut doc and 215 neut mp and play them again.

The token board thing is relevant (to answer your question) but tbh, I have a 220 clan doc that doesn't have one and she's still pretty damned good. I just never liked doing tokens so I 'settle' in that one area. Every blue moon I turn in some token guns.. maybe I'll have a decent board before the game shuts its doors.

I've never had a need/desire to equip the weapons that you are referring to that require 30k faction so I'm going to say that it isn't a huge deal. At least they haven't come into play on any of the sided chars I play.

The one big 'Con' you are missing is regarding tower wars. If you are wanting to have a high level of participation in tower wars then you probably want to go sided. There are neutrals that participate in tower wars but not nearly to the extent or success as omni/clan (as is evident when you look at the neutral side xp bonus).

Hope this helps.

[Zoln]

Cool thanks for the insights.

The token board thing is relevant (to answer your question) but tbh, I have a 220 clan doc that doesn't have one and she's still pretty damned good. I just never liked doing tokens so I 'settle' in that one area. Every blue moon I turn in some token guns.. maybe I'll have a decent board before the game shuts its doors.

What do you equip in the neck slot for those characters out of curiosity? I haven't really seen much discussion on alternatives to token boards at higher levels.

I've never had a need/desire to equip the weapons that you are referring to that require 30k faction so I'm going to say that it isn't a huge deal. At least they haven't come into play on any of the sided chars I play.

I'm mostly thinking about those weapons in particular (Sword of Dusk/Dawn). I'm thinking of rolling a neut Adventurer and was planning to have 1HE and ME weapons (I played around with a skill calculator, Advy's can max both skills without much sacrifice it seems). I'm not sure what other weapons have that 30k faction limit, but I don't think I've seen that many melee weapons that have the faction limits.

The one big 'Con' you are missing is regarding tower wars. If you are wanting to have a high level of participation in tower wars then you probably want to go sided. There are neutrals that participate in tower wars but not nearly to the extent or success as omni/clan (as is evident when you look at the neutral side xp bonus).

Hmm..never thought about Tower Wars. But tbh I'm not really that into them in the first place so I can see that not being a big sacrifice for me. I'm not much of a pvper to start with. But I can see how that would annoy the more pvp-oriented players.

[Traderjill]

What do you equip in the neck slot for those characters out of curiosity? I haven't really seen much discussion on alternatives to token boards at higher levels.

I use a Smuggled Combat Merit Board Base or Smuggled Nanite Merit Board Base they drop from the dread bosses on RK. There might be some other variations of this board.

I'm mostly thinking about those weapons in particular (Sword of Dusk/Dawn). I'm thinking of rolling a neut Adventurer and was planning to have 1HE and ME weapons (I played around with a skill calculator, Advy's can max both skills without much sacrifice it seems). I'm not sure what other weapons have that 30k faction limit, but I don't think I've seen that many melee weapons that have the faction limits.

These days I believe that Sword of Dusk/Dawn are mainly social weapons. I've not seen any advy's running around with those as their main weapons.

[Zoln]

These days I believe that Sword of Dusk/Dawn are mainly social weapons. I've not seen any advy's running around with those as their main weapons.

That's possible, but I like the damage and bonuses it gives. I was going to be putting in ME points anyways as now that I have a bit of a bankroll from my trader I was going out outfit him with Kyr'Och Energy Hammers for the first 100 levels or so (that 1s/1s speed is just very nice and hard to ignore when starting out).

[hokutonoken]

sword of dawn/dusk

can be upgrade fro Lox expansion..and than you can wear it..

and yap at higher lv grinding..(inferno mish) i find it easier to be neutral and get into a team...when a person drops out..faster than sided players.

[Suicidal]

-You can walk into any city without being ganked by the guards/other players

Stay away from named guards and Silverstone in TIR city

[Ahndracorvid]

Pros
-You can walk into any city without being ganked by the guards/other players
-Easier to find teams to join
-You can select which side to join in Battlestations

Also:

-GMS/shopping
-Not limited by items with the "not-omni" or "not-clan" tag; you can wear both
-Guardian faction is relatively easy to get
-Lack of a need to grind tokens
-Convenience of travel, especially in SL where one side's garden statues are placed in worse spots than the other's; you can use both
-The social aspect. One of the biggest reasons I stayed neutral is because I made friends on both sides while leveling up. It's easier to team with a sided friend in Inf mishes or visit their org spot without being ganked as a neutral, than if I were a member of the opposite faction. Think of it as a spectrum with clan on one side, omni on the other, and neutral in the middle.

[Lukew]

It also looks quite hardcore having a 220 neut toon due to the lack of side-xp bonus and the time it takes to level one.

But yeh, hopping sides on the BS is worth it alone. Pisses lots of people off.

[PingBong]

the only downsides for being neut that i see are token board and low probability of geting high towers.. the only upside i see is being able to join either side in BS so not rly worth it imo.

[mes]

Easier faction to maximize, neuts use GoS for SK which can be raised near 50k killing heckler bosses / lotv, no tiresome temple raids etc.

-Less orgs to join (there's what, 3-4 neut orgs per server?)
-Some equipment requires you to be omni or clan

There's plenty of large neutral orgs to choose from, comes in many different flavors. Dunno what's the situation on RK2/3 though.

"some equipment" being the white Omni sleeves, Tier 3 armor and some SL faction locked stuff like the Sword of Dawn/Dusk mentioned earlier. Neuts can wear pretty much everything else.

The only disadvantage that really ever bugged me as a neutral was the fact that neutrals, overall, don't do their own pande raids and, on RK2 at least, were stuck doing them with omni (won't go into hows or whys.. it just is what it is). Now that pande is soon to be instanced, I'm actually planning to dust off my 220 neut doc and 215 neut mp and play them again.

It should taken into consideration when writing down stuff like this that there's around 10 times more sided players than neutral players. It's a big difference that most people overlook.

[PingBong]

inf missions are much more common sight then inf hecks/lotv raids

[mes]

inf missions are much more common sight then inf hecks/lotv raids

good point, though it's inf easy easy easy easy most of the time, not much faction there

[Traderjill]

It should taken into consideration when writing down stuff like this that there's around 10 times more sided players than neutral players. It's a big difference that most people overlook.

I mentioned the size of the neutral population in my post/reply to the OP in regards to tower wars. That doesn't change the fact that someone that is in the process of making a decision about being neutral til 220 should be aware that they'll have to deal with the fact that the neutral faction (at least on RK2) doesn't manage its own pande raids. No commentary needed as to why this is the case, how or if it can change, etc.. just stating a fact. The only other relevant piece of information is that soon pande will be instanced which may make this fact a non-issue (for anyone that might currently have an issue with the current pande raiding setup/agreement).

[Negs]

Just the fact that you can truely say you are a Neutral is reason enough, being able to compete at the relatively same levels while taking the "harder" path is very fulfilling

[Thymoglobul]

The tokenboard is a notable disadventage if you plan to do pvp at 220, especially duels.
Any sided with crappy symbiants will have better defence and offence than a neutral in full alpha xan symbiants.
Also keep in mind that neutrals can't have significant tower buff while sided can, which is further increasing the gap.

[Azza]

Pros
-You can walk into any city without being ganked by the guards/other players
-Easier to find teams to join
-You can select which side to join in Battlestations

Cons
-No token board (does this really matter much anymore, do people even use them at 220?)
-Less orgs to join (there's what, 3-4 neut orgs per server?)
-Some equipment requires you to be omni or clan
-Some high QL SL items require 30,000 faction redeemed/unredeemed (ie Sword of Dusk/Dawn), which is apparently impossible as Neut (I read in another post here the cap for neuts is 25,000 faction)
-Raids can be a problem (usually end up on Omni raids) {thanks Ameliaa}
-Lack of Tower Wars (you can do them, but are much more limited due to the lack of Neut orgs) {thanks Ameliaa}


Am I missing anything? I'm specifically looking at level 220 pros/cons.

Searching entire GMS is a pro, but you could just have a neut alt to do that.

Having a green Scorpio Shell is one of my favorite pros to being neut.

The two biggest disadvantages are the token board and the lack of neut orgs with towersites. In fact sided orgs are more numerous and powerful in general. These are indeed both huge disadvantages to being neut.

Items requiring faction points is a non-issue. Nobody seriously uses any of those. Tier armor is also no big deal, un-sided Ofab pretty much replaced it all. Other stuff like Freddy sleeves has better neutral equivalents.

[Keldros]

Searching entire GMS is a pro, but you could just have a neut alt to do that.

Yes, but from time to time we see threads in the game suggestion forums indicating people with sided mains don't know how to roll a neutral alt who can make a trip to the shop without being pwned by leets along the way.

[Boltgun]

On the pros, you can see both sides content on GMS and your players shops is available to all.

And on the con, you have to watch your faction constantly when doing SL missions. And take an extra turn to raise your GOS faction to 50k before moving on 200+.

Biggest cons remains the token board and towers.

Biggest pro is shouting "I am noot!!!1" at 220.

[Psithief]

I really noticed the lack of orgs to join.
206 and no org, but I am being picky, what with wanting people who play (actively) in my timezone.

And not full of whiners or people who use the org chat to discuss everything about their personal lives.

...

Not a lot of choice out there for neutrals.