GrandFool
07-05-2024, 10:57 PM
Had thought of posting this here in hopes of igniting some community wisdom and providing an outlet for new or returning players to gain some understanding. It’s easy not to share an opinion, but I’m hoping you’ll share yours.
I just returned to the game after many years; the level cap when I played last was 41. This game has changed a lot both in good and bad ways. The good is to see how the game has grown and lasted over a decade, the bad is the experience clawing towards endgame with no resources or knowledge.
In short, I think the game is struggling in both a knowledge and resource gap for new players, so this is really just a slight overview of my experience.
Leveling from 1-86 is extremely demanding and daunting. It starts off fairly decent but somewhere in the 40s or so, it gets really difficult to keep up. By the 60s it becomes apparent that you either have good gear or you don’t. I tried to level and I’ve played before so it’s not a completely fresh go-around for me, but leveling alone stops making sense, especially in the 60-70s. As soon as it hits 81, you get to see who really has resources and who doesn’t.
The problem I see is two fold. Firstly it’s the knowledge gap. Most questions can’t be google searched or found on YouTube because information tends to be outdated. I’ve found a few players like ApoxHD, encryptions, and Dino, but the information available isn’t really thorough or enough for someone in my situation. Not a shot at those streamers, just difficult to conceptualize aspects of the game today through older content.
For example, which skills and talents, what for, and why those specifically? I’m dropping respec scrolls to figure out what works best for a 10 year old game. Doesn’t make sense that it’s this difficult to figure basic things out and feeling required to do my own research when realistically, it could/should already exist somewhere.
Another example is gold farming. It looks like you need gear to get the gold to buy good gear. It becomes a bit of a chicken and egg thing with which comes first. My gear is bad, so I can’t effectively farm anything and barely survive basic maps as an 80+ mage. I don’t have and can’t generate the right amount of gold to really do anything. At most I’ve had 400k gold by rationing potions via heal skill and having friends that help me out.
How is a new player supposed to get gold or gear without years of events or hundreds of dollars worth of plat? I’ve felt extremely behind the power curve since around level 40-50 and it only got worse as I leveled. I’ve made builds to leverage what I can to be useful, regardless of my gear (heal and curse). With that being said, it forced a reliance on other players in basically deserted maps below fester.
It’s been a pleasantly miserable experience. I’ve made friends, that’s enough to keep me interested. This isn’t a rant really, because I’m still going to play and deal with the gripes. But it’s a shame knowing it would take years to get “end-game” gear or the cash to do so.
Another disappointing truth is how rough the economy is in the game. 25m is worth 2,000 plat, which is worth about $120 or so. Maybe my understanding is still to newbie to know any better, but isn’t a full set of proc gear like 300m to have everything set up? How does a new player close that gap? Im earning MAYBE 10k gold per sunken run over 20-30m. Does that mean im stuck doing 3,000 runs of it to get anywhere useful?
What advice would you give to a new player on how to go about learning the game, and being geared enough to actually enjoy it?
I just returned to the game after many years; the level cap when I played last was 41. This game has changed a lot both in good and bad ways. The good is to see how the game has grown and lasted over a decade, the bad is the experience clawing towards endgame with no resources or knowledge.
In short, I think the game is struggling in both a knowledge and resource gap for new players, so this is really just a slight overview of my experience.
Leveling from 1-86 is extremely demanding and daunting. It starts off fairly decent but somewhere in the 40s or so, it gets really difficult to keep up. By the 60s it becomes apparent that you either have good gear or you don’t. I tried to level and I’ve played before so it’s not a completely fresh go-around for me, but leveling alone stops making sense, especially in the 60-70s. As soon as it hits 81, you get to see who really has resources and who doesn’t.
The problem I see is two fold. Firstly it’s the knowledge gap. Most questions can’t be google searched or found on YouTube because information tends to be outdated. I’ve found a few players like ApoxHD, encryptions, and Dino, but the information available isn’t really thorough or enough for someone in my situation. Not a shot at those streamers, just difficult to conceptualize aspects of the game today through older content.
For example, which skills and talents, what for, and why those specifically? I’m dropping respec scrolls to figure out what works best for a 10 year old game. Doesn’t make sense that it’s this difficult to figure basic things out and feeling required to do my own research when realistically, it could/should already exist somewhere.
Another example is gold farming. It looks like you need gear to get the gold to buy good gear. It becomes a bit of a chicken and egg thing with which comes first. My gear is bad, so I can’t effectively farm anything and barely survive basic maps as an 80+ mage. I don’t have and can’t generate the right amount of gold to really do anything. At most I’ve had 400k gold by rationing potions via heal skill and having friends that help me out.
How is a new player supposed to get gold or gear without years of events or hundreds of dollars worth of plat? I’ve felt extremely behind the power curve since around level 40-50 and it only got worse as I leveled. I’ve made builds to leverage what I can to be useful, regardless of my gear (heal and curse). With that being said, it forced a reliance on other players in basically deserted maps below fester.
It’s been a pleasantly miserable experience. I’ve made friends, that’s enough to keep me interested. This isn’t a rant really, because I’m still going to play and deal with the gripes. But it’s a shame knowing it would take years to get “end-game” gear or the cash to do so.
Another disappointing truth is how rough the economy is in the game. 25m is worth 2,000 plat, which is worth about $120 or so. Maybe my understanding is still to newbie to know any better, but isn’t a full set of proc gear like 300m to have everything set up? How does a new player close that gap? Im earning MAYBE 10k gold per sunken run over 20-30m. Does that mean im stuck doing 3,000 runs of it to get anywhere useful?
What advice would you give to a new player on how to go about learning the game, and being geared enough to actually enjoy it?