I am extremely fond of Reaver. I have repeatedly reinced into it... but the
energy degradation thing always gets me, and then I leave again.
I admit I tend to be on sporatically, sometimes.
There are, in that and other lights, problems with having the energy degrade
significantly during RL time away. And though it is meant to remedy this
somewhat, the having to unfreeze vs freeze thing is not a good way to go about
it. It makes the guild only for those whose RL is predictable.
This time, for example, I didn't expect to be away suddenly, but research
calls.
I had been fighting to get to the next reaver 'tier', and had managed to
slowly get up to 50% of the way. I just logged on, and it's now at 30%. It's
only been... I dunno... maybe a few weeks. I can only get a few % per day at
most, so I am set back by a few weeks as well. Basically, 40% of all the
energy acquired the entire time I've been in the guild is gone. All because I
didn't anticipate having to be gone, and that which was on my mind wasn't
'better log in and reaver freeze'.
In the past, there was also one time when I simply forgot, and another time
when I played on my other character for a while so didn't pay attention to
this one for a bit. Whenever it happends, there's a distinct sense of loss,
of frustration, ect.
The only cure is to grind some more... but you have the feeling that you're
farther from that goal than ever, for a mere mistake.
And then there's when you think you have reaver-freezed, or simply don't log
in for a few days.
Now, there's the whole week thing. Once frozen, it's for a week. Can still
gain exp, but can't make any headway on Reaver. May as well not play. Back
in the day I would think that, though nowadays I'd just play the other
character.
And even having to do it, to try to think 'am I going to be on in the next few
days? Shoot... what were my plans? What was I going to do? Can I remember
to log on if things get hectic, of my job demands overtime, if time with
friends offline comes up, if I need to move and pack all my stuff? It's
frustrating, worrying, and demoralizing. There's a certain finality to it
each time - a decision to not play, or just not play this character, for a
week.
Anyway, I guess what I am saying is that I really like reaver, hence why I
have several times reinced into it, but there's one feature that consistently
drives me away each time and that's the energy degradation thing. Doesn't
matter how confident I am each time that I will be careful enough this time
around, it's always just a matter of time before I lose a huge portion of the
collected energy to the energy degradation thing, with all the despair that
entails. And even before I screw that up, there's always the worry.
There should be some better way, I conjecture - something more based on one's
gameplay than one's out-of-game life, with what quirks it may have.
I know I've suggested this before at different times: I do so each time I
reinc out of Reaver because of the energy deg thing. This time is no
exception. I'm thinking Liberator next; I like collecting ghosts, its fun.
Or maybe strait tzarakk; the mounts are always a nice feature. Every guild
has its fun points. But I am pretty sure most don't punish someone for their
real life.

I have to agree on Hygrargyrum good points about reaver lackluster-feature.
Even if it is viewed that the system is fine as it is, it shouldn't be
affected by the days you aren't playing at all.

Rather than energy deterioration after 7 RL days it should start when you are
active/online 7 boots and not doing anything. In other words log into game 7
boots without doing anything in those and get to be the lackluster.

Yours,
Zerks "lost 400+% ultimate energy because of wedding hassles"