Simply put, there isn't one. Yeah sure, we have raids. Well, raids are just that...raids. It's not warfare, it's nuisance.
We had a war of sorts once upon a time. Blight anchors were a representation of an offensive effort on the part of Withered Aegis. They were tough, blighted everything in sight and spit out hordes of mobs bent on destruction. Ok, I admit there were problems...invisiblity, highly mobile anchors, chain creation of mobs and some problems with where they spawned. Then people started crying and whining...
"It's not fair, I can't kill them, they blight all my resources, snivel, whine, whimper..." I am reminded of an old Roman saying "Dulce Bellum Inexpertis". My latin is a tad rusty but, basically it means "War is delightful to the inexperienced" "It's not fair..." Please! Since when has war been fair? War is a dirty, messy and dangerous business. Basically those that can't handle it need to get the hell out of the way of those who can. "I can't kill them..." Somebody explain the point of this whine to me please? "They blight all my resources..." No kidding? Really? War is not waged to conveinience the crafters. Far from it, war is waged to make their lives has hard as possible. The quickest way to win any war is to remove an enemy's ability to offer effective resistance. By blighting resources WA is doing just that. I would also ask what the crafters did back in the pre-merge days when blighted resources were a daily fact of life in Istaria.
So, as time progressed the powers that be heard the crying and whining long enough and removed the anchors. We didn't beat them, although we got to a point where they were somewhat controlled. And yet the whining about blighted resources continued. So long Anchors, take your victory back to WA and gloat over it. Yeah, I said VICTORY. We did nothing that forced their removal other than incessant whining. That is an admission that we couldn't handle it. And it has stuck in my craw ever since. I am a member of the community, the community lost that round and therefore WE ALL lost that round. Basically, we have lost or are losing the war. And we want titles, and emblems and all this other crap saying how good we are. I think we deserve labels that say "LOSER" in big glowing red letters.
Now the Devs are saying the Anchors are coming back. I say "Hurray!!". Bring em on, give us a chance to get even and get back on the winning side. And while your about this little chore, make them bad to the bone. Anchors should be stationary. They should be well guarded. They should spit vexators along with everything else they drop on us. And they should be but a part of a greater effort from WA to challenge us.
Currently, the war against WA is non-existant. They raid us, we raid them. Yes, characters going to hunt the Deadlands, the Satyr Islands, the Dead Pool etc are raiders. For many, its little more than target practice. Along with the anchors, how about bringing back the Avatar of Pain to do town raids. Remember Harro pre-merge? Have WA forces attack, and if not stopped in a reasonable amount of time, damage and/or destroy World Objects...tunnels to Satyr Isand Portals come to mind. All those crazy machines could and should be targeted. How about some packs of Cursed Wolves randomly patrolling the roads hither and yon?
Give us a war. Crafters would need guarding, Anchors and other WA mobs would need destroying. World Objects would need to be repaired or rebuilt. Everyone is crying for content. Well, the war is on-going, ever-changing, constant and mainly player generated content. Sure, the devs create the CONDITIONS of the war. Our reactions to the conditions creates the CONTENT. Of course, care must be exercised that WA forces don't overwhelm us. Numbers of anchors, AoPs, World Object raidersetc has to be proportionate to the numbers of player ONLINE atany given time.
Most if not all of the mobs are old 'friends'. They just need new purpose. They should also be tiered to fit the appropriate regions of Istaria. If the Devs can get this war going, I'm sure the players will makecontent for it. The nay sayers are gonna jump on this with both feet saying no-one will do anything about anything that happens. I begto differ O Nay Saying Ones. Let the war commence, get out of the way and watch what happens.
And while we wage war, real war mind you, the devs have the'content monkey' off their backs for a while and can work uninterrupted on other things to improve the game. And that brings me to my biggest beef with people's wantsin this game. Too often we, me included, want to look at the game from the "What is good for me?" perspective, to the exclusion of what is really important. And that is what is good for the GAME. Many of us have played this came since release or shortly thereafter. We stuck with it for a reason, its a great concept with awesome potential. The only way that potential can be realized is for the devs to do what is GOODFOR THE GANE and not what is GOOD FOR THE INDIVIDUAL. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few or the one. If one or more of my classes takes a hit, so be it, I will adapt. You can too.
Kwinn