Invasions skewing the rankings?

[Basil Dreadflint]

I wonder if the invasions are going to cause problems for a lot of the pirates?

Ever since the introduction of invasions to the game, I have noticed that a lot of people tend to "put out the call" when an invasion is announced. This means that a lot of people hurry to log in, and they are only playing during the invasions.

Also, I have been watching the amount of rep being earned during these invasions.

Here is what I am seeing.

It is quite possible to earn 3K to 5K or even 6K of reputation during an invasion. If you plan and schedule, you can sometimes make 3 invasions per day, and easily earn 10K in rep in a day. This rep is like earning Quest rep. It doesn't help with any skills or weapons.

I have heard people in chat discussing the amount of rep they are earning. One person yesterday said they had moved from level 32 to level 34 just because of invasions. I'm sure that there are much lower level pirates who are moving up even faster.

Here is the problem with this:
If you move up in Notoriety, and can move just a few levels basically with 'free' rep, it is going to unbalance your skill set and make it much harder to ever increase your weapons and skills.

A normal level 34 would be expected to have certain skills. Cutlass, pistol, Doll, etc., would be at certain levels comparable to the enemies that a level 34 pirate would be expected to defeat. With the amount of rep being earned during invasions, and a lot of people only playing during the invasions, it is quite possible that there will be a bunch of level 34 pirates who only have the skills of, what used to be, level 24 or 25 pirates.

Don't get me wrong. I think the invasions are the best addition to the game since they brought back the Boss Battle.

I just am seeing a potential problem with the way players are approaching the game since the invasions were introduced. Too many invasions, and too much rep from them, can actually be a bad thing for a 'growing' pirate.