Need blue advice for future teams PvP server ruleset

[Aenor]

I'm posting this here because this has been discussed to death on the PvP forum and I'm looking for fresh ideas and perspective. Many of you would never take part in a discussion on the PvP forums because it's a giant flame/troll fest. So I'm bringing the discussion here, and I don't consider it out of place because I'm specifically seeking the input of players who do not play on the current Red99 server. It is my hope that an ideal teams PvP ruleset would attract numerous players who have no interest in the current free-for-all ruleset on Red99.

Regarding a future teams PvP server, Sirken stated on one of his twitch streams that all discussion on the part of the staff has been tabled until after Velious release. You can expect plenty of trolls to reply to this thread stating teams will never happen, but nobody on the staff has said that. I hope Velious launch is smooth and the current beta server will be left up to try out teams PvP rulesets.

The staff has further stated that they are considering dividing the teams on the basis of race (like Vallon Zek and Tallon Zek), religion (like Sullon Zek) or starting city. I've been pushing for a city-based teams ruleset but have run into some difficulty providing each team with all the necessary PvE classes. Here's what I've come up with:

Human faction:

Erudin
Qeynos (includes Surefall Glade)
Halas
Freeport

Evil faction:

Neriak
Paineel
Grobb
Oggok

Elf and shortie faction:

Rivervale
Kaladim
Kelethin (includes Felwithe)
Ak'Anon

The issue is that such a division would deny essential raid classes to certain teams. The evil team would lack monks and bards while the Elf/shortie team would lack shaman and monks. So here are some questions I had that I wanted to bring to the general community:

1. Are shadowknights a legitimate FD pulling class? I've never played a SK so I have no idea how they stack up to Monks as pullers. Evil I'm not really worried about because they will get monks once Kunark is released and Iksar are added to the Evil faction. However, what if SK's were the only FD class the Elf/shortie faction would ever get? Would that be game-breaking?

2. Would non-classic race/class combos like Halfling Shaman or Gnome Monk ruin your immersion? I really like the regional division above with one faction controlling Faydwer, Evil controlling East Antonica and Human faction controlling West Antonica. Each faction would have one city outside its sphere of influence (Rivervale, Paineel and Freeport), so that aspect would equal out. It would be very easy to know who is in your faction via racial division (humans/erudits/barbs on one faction (humans only in Surefall), elves and shorties on another, then evils. It's basically like Race War with elf and shortie teams combined).

3. If you just can't deal with the thought of non-classic combos, what would you think about the idea of making Freeport a wildcard city where all three factions could start? This would open up the bard class to the evil team and allow monks to choose the Elf/shortie team. Under this scenario I would recommend allowing barb shaman to start in freeport as well to give the neutral team access to the class. My suggestion would be to copy spell merchants and quest gives for levels 1-19 from Halas to Freeport, but make those renegade Shaman traval to Halas for any further questing/spells.

Since humans would now be on all three factions, the only way to tell who is on your team would be via player name color. My personal preference would be to simply bite the bullet and let halflings be shaman. Simply port all the halas trainers, shaman spell merchants and quest givers over to an available spot in Rivervale and change them to halflings with new names. I'm hopeful that the Elf/shortie team can get by with gnome SKs as their only FD class because that would save us all from the gnome monk. Thanks in advance for your input and let the trolling begin!