Sid67 has a good post breaking down my previous issue with renown ranks, and how my DoK will need to focus more on scenarios in order to catch his renown ranks up with his actual rank. When I wrote my post I considered the difference between the two ranks a minor issue, but as Sid67 points out, the disparity brings to light a possible design issue in Warhammer Online.

I remember when WAR was still in beta, I leveled one of my characters through scenarios, but stopped once I reached the renown rank cap. At that point I felt that I was ‘wasting’ my time since I was only receiving xp from scenarios, and missing out on renown due to the cap. Instead of queuing up, I went out and did some open RvR, some PQs, PvE, for a few ranks, and then back to scenarios to gain both xp and renown. It was not an outright conscious choice as much as a response to what the game was offering. In my mind scenarios are for renown gain, and if I’m capped on renown, I stay out of scenarios.

It seems somewhat silly then to make renown ranks so difficult to gain in the early parts of the game. A characters power is not greatly enhanced with a higher renown rank, as at best you will have a few more stat points and access to gear that is comparable to PQ drops. Like Sid67, I think Warhammer would actually be a better game 1-39 if renown ranks were easier to attain, and only at rank 40 would renown ranks really slow down and become something to work on. Instead of adjusting renown gain for oRvR and Objectives/Keeps, lowering the amount of renown needed to rank up would mean you could keep up with your renown ranks without having to grind scenarios or really go out of your way in-game. Currently I’m going to have to alter my play style for a few days just to use an item I gained doing what I like, oRvR and sieging a keep. Seems a bit off…