Death Penalty

[WanWhiteWolf]

I admit, that high EGO players have more time to find cool legendary stuff with cool rolls, that make life easier, but my experiment states, that it is not essential for comfort gameplay, just a bonus, that is the motivation and goal of endgame content. So it is normal, that players with hundreds of hours invested in the game feel themselves more comfortable, than noobs.

I have EGO 5100+ toon and recently started new one. The new one is EGO 1200+ now. The main idea of new toon is to try to level it up without using arkforge at all. And you know what? It feels good.
1) Have no issues with dying a lot and still own top places at mass-events.
2) No problem of finding/purchasing from vendors new (matching EGO rating) guns and modding it.
3) Admit, that it is a bit of a problem with outleveled shields (I have to use rare EGO 444 shield up to EGO1000).
4) It looks like there is no need for epic or legendary stuff either. Using mostly rare stuff is enough to play comfortable (I've found some epic and even one legendary guns - but those are all crappy).

Leveling makes a hudge difference in this game. Sure... experience counts as much but it doesn't replace it. An experienced player with a lower ego level will lose vs a non-experienced with a high ego. If you want proof ..... I am close to 5000 ego and I started a month ago. I am not a veteran by any definition. You can bring your 1200 ego character and we do a race score at a Volge siege. You are more experienced and if level doesn't count that much you should pass me without issues. Shall we? But if you are with your 5000 + character, the odds are on your side.

If item leveling / shield leveling would dissapear, then we woul have a nice balance. Sure... high ego players would still have advantages ( acesss to T5 mods / weapons, full perk three .... etc), but it would fair for everyone.

[Lubber]

You can bring your 1200 ego character and we do a race score at a Volge siege. You are more experienced and if level doesn't count that much you should pass me without issues. Shall we?

Well, we definitely could, and it would be interesting test, though it would not work like that. My character have lower weapon skills, so yours will certainly "overdamage" mine - the idea I stated before. I also currently have no decent weapon for volge (I prefer precise bio- or radiation- nano assault rifles for volge) (remember - I am limited in levelling up my weapon because of not using arkforge), so, in case of sieges, afflicted suits my toon better in current state, or hellbug majors. My character is also packed in blue (rare) stuff, that also affect damage and indirectly score (compared to yours, as I suppose, cause it is normal to have epic/legendary stuff at EGO 5000+).
But still I may take part at volge sieges without going down much and have a decent score. A bit lower, maybe, but still compared to yours (for example, as for sieges - I may guarantee max tier reward (27000 score as I recall) for my character).
And this is the idea I am continue to talk about: it is normal that high EGO players may have more comforting gameplay, they earned it by investing their time in this game. But the disadvantage of been low EGO is not that drastic to go down too much (remember the topic of this thread) and to prevent from having a nice score in events.

PS. I am also not a veteran - just started when the game went F2P.