Honest Opinion of 110

Hi,

I really find joy in writing, and I could go a lot more in depth than this, but I will do my best to keep this as short as possible.. so with that being said, let’s just delve into this controversial topic:

This cap had so much potential, a true chance to help PL rise from the ashes (a chance unheard of in literal years) – but it is glaringly obvious that this was not accomplished.

Despite that bluntness, I do think there is still a chance to save 110, and ultimately, PL’s timeline, because let’s face it: this is going to be the last cap.

I think to begin with, we need to clarify just what has been causing the problems (not that it isn’t already clear, lol).

So, in no particular order:

There is – literally - no incentive for PvPers to cap;

Ebonthrax is too unrewarding and difficult to solo (who has time to organise a group if they log on for spurts of 10-15minutes?);

It’s close to 1m xp to cap, and the highest orb that drops is 5k;

And, to top it all off: Horrendous drop-rates for necessary gear.

Listed like that, I think the solution presents itself quite eloquently.

WhoIsThis sums up the context for my next point better than I am able to, so I will use his work as the basis for what I am about to say:

 

Quote:

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Originally Posted by WhoIsThis

There are 4 basic types of PL Players. Let me Split them into 2 categories first.
PvE Players
1. Casual players:
They may play PvP for a bit, but by far their main attraction is PvE. They don't spend a lot of time on PL, may or may not reach level cap. Only a portion will buy platinum. The main spine was made free in an attempt to get more of this type of player.

2. Hardcore PvE players:
They may have experienced PvP, but do not like it, usually due to their poor performance or bad experiences. They spend a lot of time playing PvE and are among the richest players in the game. They can be a good source of revenue, with many consuming hundreds of plat (sometimes thousands) per month in elixirs, vanity, and other items. They may have serval alts. There are also many aggressive merchants in this category. A subcategory are a handful that do PvP, but mainly PvE.

PvP Players
3. Twinkers:
They are hardcore PvPers. They usually have multiple twinks and spend lavishly per character, trying to get the perfect "twink". They play at many different levels and love what they do. Their only recent complaint has been the decline of twinking, which has seen a rise of rushers and sore losers.

4. Level Cap PvPers:
I myself am in this category. They are usually the first to get to the level cap. Level cap PvP is why they exist. Money only matters as an end to get the best equipment. At each level cap, they get their quickly, get the end game equipment, and basically spend 80%+ of their time (some 100%) in PvP. If they did not have to, many would spend little or even no time in PvE.

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I think an important distinction to note is that only player types 2-4 are what is left in this game, even then, groups 3 and 4 vastly outweigh group 2 (unbiased fact, please don't argue). Twinking is slowly dying, and yes, I know I have been saying that for years now, but it's real this time: There are literally 2 "active" levels which house < 15 unique players each day, and that is only because it is the closest thing to balanced PvP without the endgame grind - and even then, it is a pale imitation of what PL PvP has to offer.

However, the overwhelming majority of the remaining players are here solely for Endgame PvP. If you want the majority of the playerbase to participate in the new cap (and spend money), give them an incentive to do so: don’t hide necessary gear (mythics) behind outdated drop-rates; and, either buff the drop-rate of orbs, or allow 10-20k’s to drop.

It goes without saying that I don't speak for everyone, but I have definitely been around longer than most who are active, and can recognise what is healthy for the game and what is not. 110 is not.

I didn't want to add yet another thread to the current mess of the current General Discussion, but all you lot are doing at the moment is arguing with no real construction or thought to your posts.

I can understand your frustration, I wanted to advise if you were not aware, there are 10k exp orbs in the game, Ebonthrax dropped about 4 of them for me yesterday in the Hyper Map.

5 days for fast cap was not enough for me (I couldn't do it on the weekend). I hope this isnt the last cap.

Could not have said this any better.

The only people that i have seen that like this cap are from group 2, and that is the minority of the PL player base.

I see no reason for me to cap. What i like to do is pvp which i have enjoyed for many years on this game, but if i do cap i already know that endgame gear will not offer what i want for pvp. Since there is one huge thing that ruined pvp during 105 and that is enchantments making it so that certain people will always have an advantage P2W.

I do plan on trying the new plat map, hopefully it doesn't require 30+ hours of play time.

Well said, Cam. I'd have to agree with you on this.

The Hyper Thrax Plat Dungeon was certainly a step in the right direction, considering everything is tradeable. I think it's far from perfect, but again, a step forward.

Groups 2 and 4 will always have conflict, unfortunately. That's evident on forums. Funny enough (or not?) is that there is undoubtedly one thing hardcore PvE players and level cap PvPers agree on:

The issue at hand could be best addressed by making necessary gear easier to farm, and simply making vanities difficult to farm.

It solves both sides of the dilemma. Cinco has always displayed a strong reluctance to this very idea. It's really a beautiful concept, too, because new vanities can always be designed and implemented time after time, and players would happily farm them. It is an inherently sustainable system.

The content as of now would operate much more effectively if there were thousands of players on at a time. More mythics would be in circulation. Prices wouldn't be excessive.

But that's just not the case.

PL was never a hardcore grinding game. I picked it up years ago because it was easy to pick up, and I could jump into the action right away. There are far too many obstacles that prevent me from enjoying the one thing I love about PL (the PvP).

EDIT: The last thing I'll add is that PvErs would be really content if new vanities/collector's items were added to old campaigns. Again, it's an easy implementation that keeps PvErs happy.

I'm sorry to hear you are not enjoying this new campaign.

From a farmers point of view and a person who loves a challenge and a grind. I'm personally loving it.

There are two end game pvp guilds who both have over 15 capped level 110 characters each in their guilds who are all grinding each day with the pvers.

We are all grinding away for the new Elite and Mythic sets and spending platimum on the game. For the first time in the games history Free To Win players have the opportunity to play the premium platimum map. Opening those Gold Dragon chests is very addictive.

We went for the fast cap. This campaign 127 characters reached level 110 by a week. Last campaign around 30? People only capped to level 100 in a week.

These forums do not entirely demonstrate the whole active PL community that are currently playing the game daily.

What is dissapointing is the lack of motivation of some players who just do not want to put the time and effort or platinum into capping to level 110. It has been 18 days since the expansion.

Many have capped and more are trying to cap, if you want to cap you can, numerous have without the use of platimum. The most important thing is their attitude and their effort to try and give it a go. They do not give up and the achievement is getting to level 110.

There are many HYPER-THRAX runs daily and I found it easy to gather a team of 5.

You can gather a team to run map 1 : The Isle of Night for xp runs if you where willing as well.

I do agree that the xp orbs and gain in the HYPER-THRAX platimum dungeon is not as lucrative and great as MAXX CAVE was in the Mad Mage's Campaign.

I'm with you, Burningdex.

There would be so many more people participating in the level 110 cap if things were setup differently.

You simply cannot imitate giant gaming companies who have hundreds of thousands to millions of players playing on a daily basis by implementing content that would be best served to that large of an audience. The rate of mythics is pitifully low for this small of a playerbase. This is coming from someone who has the means of acquiring a set through sheer wealth and buying it.

There are several obvious things that are clearly bad this cap:

- You die instantly at the boss without a pet equipped. I have personally witnessed a player die 100 times in a single run at the boss because they do not have the funds available to purchase a pet. Even if you have the best set available for your level, you still die and get one-shotted at the boss no matter what. The boss is also glitchy and randomly one-hit KO's people no matter what strategy you use, whether its hiding behind piles of gold or not.

- 5 out of 7 (an absurd amount) of mythic set items are locked behind the paywall of Gold Chests. These include 1h weapons, 2h weapons, rings, amulets, and shields. The only mythic items that drop from the boss are helms and armors. I have stated countless times on forums that gear necessary to compete in environments like PVP should not be locked behind paywalls. Instead, vanities and other "win-more" items like elixirs should be locked if we absolutely need crates in this game.

- The path to leveling to 110 is still tedious and not obviously any easier than just leveling in Isle of Night like players did before the update. Today I ran for an hour and ten minutes on my mage and only received one 3500 xp orb and roughly 12k worth of experience in that 70 minutes. I would have gained 45-50k+ xp if I leveled in Isle of Night. A guildmate of mine also stated that he ran for 16 hours in Hyper in order to cap which is roughly the same amount of time that it takes to cap in Isle of Night. The path to leveling has not clearly gotten better - the orb drops are too random and mini-bosses and Ebonthrax do not drop enough orbs. It's all random luck when these bosses should have a higher drop rate than mobs.

Just because things were worse a week ago doesn't mean that things are good now. If you add spices to slop, it may taste a bit better but at the end of the day it's still slop.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Fwend

I'm sorry to hear you are not enjoying this new campaign.

From a farmers point of view and a person who loves a challenge and a grind. I'm personally loving it.

There are two end game pvp guilds who both have over 15 capped level 110 characters each in their guilds who are all grinding each day with the pvers.

We are all grinding away for the new Elite and Mythic sets and spending platimum on the game. For the first time in the games history Free To Win players have the opportunity to play the premium platimum map. Opening those Gold Dragon chests is very addictive.

We went for the fast cap. This campaign 127 characters reached level 110 by a week. Last campaign around 30? People only capped to level 100 in a week.

These forums do not entirely demonstrate the whole active PL community that are currently playing the game daily.

What is dissapointing is the lack of motivation of some players who just do not want to put the time and effort or platinum into capping to level 110. It has been 18 days since the expansion.

Many have capped and more are trying to cap, if you want to cap you can, numerous have without the use of platimum. The most important thing is their attitude and their effort to try and give it a go. They do not give up and the achievement is getting to level 110.

There are many HYPER-THRAX runs daily and I found it easy to gather a team of 5.

You can gather a team to run map 1 : The Isle of Night for xp runs if you where willing as well.

I do agree that the xp orbs and gain in the HYPER-THRAX platimum dungeon is not as lucrative and great as MAXX CAVE was in the Mad Mage's Campaign.

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Sunny, you couldn’t have said it better. Coming from a person who only likes the PvP aspect of PL, this cap is actually pretty fun, and drop rates for mythics in the premium map are exactly where they should be. However, I do agree that the Orb XP drop rate is too low. Tweaking this would encourage many players to get to endgame faster and be able to farm their sets with ease. Elite L110 sets are now VERY easy to acquire but the main problem is many players get to level 105, realize the leveling rate is significantly low after that, get discouraged and then complain and or quit.

I've never played a game where it's significantly easier to get The top tier new vanity sets and the sets required to pvp are the hellish grind.

Regarding pvp, I also hated and still do dislike the enchantment system where it makes pvp more P2W and less about tactics or skill. However even with enchantments at 110 I’m not sure there will be much of an effect because of how high mythic sets stats are. I’m sure max enchanted sets will have a small edge over lesser enchanted sets or sets without any hit overall I believe that it will not be as bad as it is in twink lvl pvp where those enchants can make 71 sets have better stats than 77 elite gear. I’m probably not going to even enchant my gear after I finish my mythic set and based off what I’ve seen I expect to do just as well as enchanted players in pvp. The biggest hurdle is really just finishing a mythic set.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dolloway

I'm with you, Burningdex.

- 5 out of 7 (an absurd amount) of mythic set items are locked behind the paywall of Gold Chests. These include 1h weapons, 2h weapons, rings, amulets, and shields. The only mythic items that drop from the boss are helms and armors. I have stated countless times on forums that gear necessary to compete in environments like PVP should not be locked behind paywalls. Instead, vanities and other "win-more" items like elixirs should be locked if we absolutely need crates in this game.

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If 5/7 mythics are obtainable only through a paywall, might as well just have one of those Mythic Vendors that sells the items for plat -- I'd be more inclined to buy more plat to buy the gear rather than gamble my money away. Otherwise, PvP is a ways out...

Agreed, Ghost. I think it's a step backwards to reintroduce vendors that sell the top gear but if it will help more mythic items be in circulation and it's the only way Cinco will budge then so be it.

The current update that launched today that includes an xp event, changes to Valiant rings, and other fixes is one of the best updates in recent memory though. So I'm glad Cinco introduced other ways for people to cap now, including kits that drop.