Is it worth getting into AL in 2026 as a new player?

[Vapourised]

I've read countless posts about how its hard to achieve to get into as a new player which worries me. I did note from a recent thread that AL classic is on the table so was wondering if it's just better to wait for that instead or pocket legends 2 (I used to play PL and heard talks of pocket legends 2 in late 2020).

Right now, I play old school runescape and am honestly having a blast with the endgame. It is new player friendly and Jagex put a lot of effort into producing frequent, quality updates that they poll to players to ensure that players are happy with it. Pvp (pking its called over there) is not the main focus of the game but its not ignored either and the pvp scene is active. There's no microtransactions or fomo. Plenty of engaging, challenging PVE and a very well developed quest line / story.

Is AL worth getting into? Or should I stick to OSRS?

[afwjnck]

Let me try to explain it the Pocket Legends way. Have you ever started a new account on PL with no help from anyone? If you’ve done that and still enjoyed the progress, then Arcane Legends is definitely worth trying.

Regards,
Jingpro

Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk

[Statsonly]

I've read countless posts about how its hard to achieve to get into as a new player which worries me. I did note from a recent thread that AL classic is on the table so was wondering if it's just better to wait for that instead or pocket legends 2 (I used to play PL and heard talks of pocket legends 2 in late 2020).

Right now, I play old school runescape and am honestly having a blast with the endgame. It is new player friendly and Jagex put a lot of effort into producing frequent, quality updates that they poll to players to ensure that players are happy with it. Pvp (pking its called over there) is not the main focus of the game but its not ignored either and the pvp scene is active. There's no microtransactions or fomo. Plenty of engaging, challenging PVE and a very well developed quest line / story.

Is AL worth getting into? Or should I stick to OSRS?

Getting into al as a new player is doable at the mid to low levels. You'll be able to have fun at low to mid range but the higher tiers would take some time to get fully into and understand. My main concern is gems/bind on gear being meta and nearly non existent for the average player, most new players hit a block eventually but if you can push past it and be able to play end game effective i would say SURE! try your luck😊

[Vapourised]

Let me try to explain it the Pocket Legends way. Have you ever started a new account on PL with no help from anyone? If you’ve done that and still enjoyed the progress, then Arcane Legends is definitely worth trying.

Regards,
Jingpro

Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk

I'm pretty sure it is impossible in pocket legends.The economy from what I hear is completely ruined with multiple desirable items going for 100s of mills to many bils.

[Vapourised]

Getting into al as a new player is doable at the mid to low levels. You'll be able to have fun at low to mid range but the higher tiers would take some time to get fully into and understand. My main concern is gems/bind on gear being meta and nearly non existent for the average player, most new players hit a block eventually but if you can push past it and be able to play end game effective i would say SURE! try your luck��

Thanks for your reply. Could you elaborate on this block? It sounds scary haha

[Statsonly]

Thanks for your reply. Could you elaborate on this block? It sounds scary haha

Sure no problem, over time you'll be able to play casually and farm effectively for fun but the block comes when you notice the maps you take 2 minutes to clear can be done in 30 seconds, the bosses you thought were super hard die in 1 second to op players. The block comes when you achieve a playable character but want to improve, most of the items, pets, stones, jewels and gear you'll see are not obtainable as a new player and a damn expensive. It's like going from a preteen to a full adult lol😂, you know what to do but to actually get it done? Can't without help and its still feels impossible to catch up to the guys who's been doing it for years

[afwjnck]

I'm pretty sure it is impossible in pocket legends.The economy from what I hear is completely ruined with multiple desirable items going for 100s of mills to many bils.

Well it's more or less the same here on AL, but it’s still doable. You just need to be very patient and grow your network of friends while progressing.

Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk

[Vapourised]

Well it's more or less the same here on AL, but it’s still doable. You just need to be very patient and grow your network of friends while progressing.

Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk

Is AL active enough in 2026 to justify investing the time? Is the pvp scene active?

[Statsonly]

Is AL active enough in 2026 to justify investing the time? Is the pvp scene active?

It isn't active enough to justify investing honestly, people play but the scene isn't toooo big. People will come back for awakening event next month and Elite Dune..the awake gem changes may be good but and the pvp scene under 10 is ok, 46-66 is mid but max level pvp is pretty ok

[Vapourised]

It isn't active enough to justify investing honestly, people play but the scene isn't toooo big. People will come back for awakening event next month and Elite Dune..the awake gem changes may be good but and the pvp scene under 10 is ok, 46-66 is mid but max level pvp is pretty ok

Cheers, guess I will stick with old school runescape then

[jeabahty]

I've read countless posts about how its hard to achieve to get into as a new player which worries me. I did note from a recent thread that AL classic is on the table so was wondering if it's just better to wait for that instead or pocket legends 2 (I used to play PL and heard talks of pocket legends 2 in late 2020).

Right now, I play old school runescape and am honestly having a blast with the endgame. It is new player friendly and Jagex put a lot of effort into producing frequent, quality updates that they poll to players to ensure that players are happy with it. Pvp (pking its called over there) is not the main focus of the game but its not ignored either and the pvp scene is active. There's no microtransactions or fomo. Plenty of engaging, challenging PVE and a very well developed quest line / story.

Is AL worth getting into? Or should I stick to OSRS?

mate its hard to get into AL even as an existing player lol. like you returned to OSRS, i went back to Classic WoW. its paid but i at least dont have to dish out billions and bajillions just to be viable in that game. the leveling is fun, ALL gear acquired through gameplay (sigh of relief), the zones are massive, lore is rich and deep, immersion is good, community is helpful and accomodating, and most importantly its not broken to the point where dungeons and raids can be done solo. its the best money i spend every month. id much rather pay upfront to play a game than a f2p gacha that makes being even viable (!!) requiring a butt load of real money investment + time on top of that.

for context, i bought 4k+ plat last month and felt like i barely made any progress at all. couldnt buy those expensive auras cuz of ping, high cost of items, deteriorating community, divisive and alienating game mechanics... its very very hard to even justify spending money these days in AL. that 4k plat couldve got me ~5 months of WoW sub time.

all of this is my perspective as a player who started all the way back in 2015. and idc what anyone says - game's been at an all time low, and its incredibly sad. its my opinion and im not here for a rebuttal.

[Statsonly]

Cheers, guess I will stick with old school runescape then

There's little to no way to catch up to the progression the average players at right now without straight up spending 4-8k plat and. Trying to do it normally would run u until December and by then the meta changed and you're back right where you've started

[Goldencry]

Is AL active enough in 2026 to justify investing the time? Is the pvp scene active?

PvP is pretty much dead at this point. Level 43 is the only bracket with consistent activity, while the others only see occasional matches here and there. Even Level 91 PvP (Cap LVL) is largely dead now.

It’s also important to note that PvP has become extremely expensive. New players realistically can’t compete without investing millions, and in some cases billions.

The days when all types of players participated in PvP are gone. Nowadays, it’s mostly the same small group of players spread across different level brackets, so pretty much everyone is OP. 10 years ago you would see a lot of non-geared players playing, so if you had bad gear you could have fun too, now there are none.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Yuggernaut]

An opinion from an old and experienced player who has quit and come back to the game:

Wait until next month when the Duneveil Elite content is released and see if there are any good things to farm/grind for.
If there are, then start playing; if not, it's better not to, like when Catacombs came out and many new and returning players were able to get back into the game and start off on the right foot.

New players used to start playing when Eggzavier and Egghunter came out in the first quarter, but those events were heavily nerfed. You might get lucky because the elite content was highly anticipated.

[Stein]

Let me give you some info about whats the game currently at:

- Theres no more guaranteed reward when u open locked, therefore meta gear's value is now more expensive than meta gear back when u still playing.

- Current expansion is 91, the main highlight is Bound on Equip, so basically all lvl 91 core equipment is bound on equip, u cant sell it once u use it.

- Pvp is dead, what do i mean by dead is pvp has been abandoned by devs. So u wont find any news or updates related to pvp, theres still some players who enjoyed pvp tho

- Event token reward are nerfed, now u will hardly see anything valuables for event token.

- This is imo are important for new players. U wont find Inventory slots, stash slots, any slots in story token vendor anymore.

- Theres a lot of equipment sets u will need to get.

- Meta gems are now mostly not removable.

- About leveling, if u are really starting from 0, from level 80 - 91. U might need someone to carry u because at this point mobs are strong enough to 1 shot u, below that level is still fine tho.

In conclusion, its doable if u willing to pay lot of money, or if u have the time or durability to really farm from 0 because theres a lot to chase, im talking about billions of gold

There is a couple thing u need to know so that u can decide whether or not this game is worth ur resources. But tbh u should try and find it out by urself, because of all the things ive mentioned above, somehow im still playing this game. Maybe u can get the same feeling .

[Susanne]

It is worth playing. I get miffed about certain things I don't like about AL "cough" bound on equip "cough" and too much emphasis on vanity auras, too many different sets, meaningless achievement points (my pet hate, pardon the pun), being unable to start/finish a quest until you've reached a certain level (xp points decline so you're frustrated). Ermm..oh yes leaderboards, hate lb but that's because I don't play 24/7, the change to events although we did have a really good one this year. You really need to try AL, honestly, trust me. Once you start, you just can't stop.
It's an amazing experience and if you quit, you'll come back as a "Returning Player!".
P.S. Can we get Achievement Points for being "A Returning Player!"...please?

[ogpurp]

I've read countless posts about how its hard to achieve to get into as a new player which worries me. I did note from a recent thread that AL classic is on the table so was wondering if it's just better to wait for that instead or pocket legends 2 (I used to play PL and heard talks of pocket legends 2 in late 2020).

Right now, I play old school runescape and am honestly having a blast with the endgame. It is new player friendly and Jagex put a lot of effort into producing frequent, quality updates that they poll to players to ensure that players are happy with it. Pvp (pking its called over there) is not the main focus of the game but its not ignored either and the pvp scene is active. There's no microtransactions or fomo. Plenty of engaging, challenging PVE and a very well developed quest line / story.

Is AL worth getting into? Or should I stick to OSRS?

I think any game can have a daunting time to begin where you FEEL like you're actually able to kill stuff.

World of warcraft for example. And many others. Diablo 2. Pocket legends.

Ive seen such an amazing influx of new players it makes me so happy. Whatever they are doing I just hope more continues to go to marketing because IMHO. YES its worth getting into....

Don't let OP people discourage you... we all had 1-200 kills. We all had ugly vanities and we all started somewhere. Just have fun and welcome these new players.


🫡 to the Devs.


I just hope @Cinco gets on soon its been 186 days bro and I havent seen you on..

Let's get community patrons who donate their time helping this community grow.

The pay to win thing us unfortunately because peoole will pay even if they don't like it.... im one of these people... but please @assommers let more drops come into play for people who just dont have the plat or gold to pay for farmers elixir.

I am not saying give then more luck % but lets just up the drops. I have 500% luck and ive looted a few things but come on guys. The gem market is a bit in a weird phase.

Think about allowing more gear (end level) dropping from elite maps (dune)

Love yall. . Thcd

[Gravely]

If you don't mind playing with the same 250 people and doing the same thing over and over again. You will also need to spend at least $100 to even begin to understand the massive paywall that is this game. I really would t wish this trash on anyone.

Have fun. 150k plat history and 10k+ hours

[Susanne]

Best to be an optimist and be wrong than a pessimist and be right. I think that's one of Elon Musk's but not sure.
Anyway, he's predicted that there will be no phones, no apps and no social media in 5-6 years time. Everything will be AI and everything you want will be sorted by AI. There will be more robots than people according to him.
I know what I want and it's not what he has predicted. So play the game..and..make some time for enjoying getting out with family and friends irl too. Just try AL, you can always quit if you don't like it. It's not mandatory to stay. I don't understand why people ask if it's worth playing because it's free to download, it doesn't take that much data and you can play as a guest for a test run. Just do it.

[Stein]

Unlike other game when if u want to return, u just return. Here theres a lot of things to think about before returning. I hope this could be a wake up call for STS