I wanted to lay my thoughts about the game as a whole while we wait for clown, so I hope you will enjoy a good read.
I’ve started playing this game one month after release, since I was on vacation when the game launched. Accumulating all that excitement for a month really made me cherish the time I am able to play the game.
I bought the silver pack, in order to contribute to a profitable game from the beginning. Also, because I’ve waited for LOA to what it felt like a millennia.
Lucky me I didn’t have to deal with the endless queues, and even though I was “behind”, the progression rate felt just right. I’ve started playing with a couple of friends and them being ahead of me, gave me the motivation to keep a steady progress in order to meet them at Tier 3.
Couple of months passed, some of them stopped playing but that did not stop me. I’ve found a guild with cool people, and was able to enjoy some legion raids as raid leader, which was offered to me when they assigned me to a static group.
I’d say that taking up challenges kept me going, and every time I felt like the game was getting easy and repetitive, I’ve tried to find a new challenge, for example:
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Raid leader
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Horizontal content collector
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Hard Mode content on first week at ilvl
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PvP 3v3 , Co-op, GvG
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Stronghold progression and making it nice
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Alts
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Achievements
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Understanding the market trends / Investing in the AH
As you may know, the game offers a lot of things to do, although some may be more interesting than others.
Just for the sake of context, my roster includes:
Kadan Server.
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Main Surge DB - 5x3 1495 - LvL 7-8 Gems - LvL 9 Surge Gem
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Alt Casting Reflux - 4x3 1460 - LvL 5 Gems
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Alt Tai Scrapper - 4x3 1460 - LvL 5 Gems
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Alt Control Glavier - 4x3 1460 - LvL 5 Gems
For more context, I’ve bought the ark pass and spent money to buy pheons in order to gear alts and buy some skins, since BC went to the moon and it felt like throwing away my gold.
I’ve never bought gold since I’ve never felt the need to, and I know that eventually I will stop playing so every gold I buy means less time playing the game because I will progress faster and get bored sooner.
4 characters is the sweet spot for me, I get good materials and can do plenty of raiding. I love progressing towards the next goal so the daily grind actually feels good, knowing that each day I’m closer. Maybe for some people setting up goals can help them overcome the repetitive grind.
As I was saying before, I got into a good PvM guild and had a blast being raid leader, being officer, contribute to the guild’s growth and giving my point of view for any decision that we had to make. Sadly, after Vykas the guildmaster quit, along with many others so I was presented with a new challenge, find a PvP oriented guild!
I’ve started my quest DM’ing the top 5 PvP guild masters I could find. Eventually I’ve ended up in a pretty competitive one, but not full of whales. People were not as nice as the last guild, but in order to be competitive I guess some ego is necessary, which can sometimes may be misinterpreted.
I was eager to start doing GvG, but I had to meet certain requirements that took me a while to achieve.
A couple of weeks went by and I was ready to go, full of excitement with my freshly made PvP build, PvP card set, consumables, legendary pet, engravings, tripods, and gems!
First Sunday of GvG against the Top 1 guild of the Island, we went head-to-head, after all 5 encounters were done. We ranked 2nd place. Not bad, but not enough.
After the fight, we stayed at voice chat and raid leader started an open forum to discuss strategies for next week. That’s when I saw my chance and offered to share my screen and my humble painting skills. I laid down my strategy, explaining the why’s and the how’s, people got interested and they even made some additions which made the strategy even better!
After a long theory crafting session, we went on with our lives until next week.
The following Sunday we were all ready for battle with strategy in mind and hope in our hearts.
We went into the raid, consumables ready, positions ready, calls started to go, protect this, support that, I need help! get his ass! It went on and on for 5 encounters, and in the end, we were victorious!
We ended an era.
Even though PvP has its flaws, the thrill of doing GvG content and PvP in general with comms and everything, feels really fun and rewarding for me, so I strongly recommend it to at least try it (with a competitive guild).
Apart from PvP, and also for context I’ve completed almost every available collectible in the game, I’m only missing:
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Several Relic Sailors / A few sailors from shipwrecks
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4 Sea bounties (From Shipwrecks)
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Vairgrys’s Nest and Yearning Island Soul
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Epic Protection rune from Lush Reed
You could say I’ve had my fair share of horizontal content grind. It may look really boring but for me it was another challenge to keep me playing and celebrating whenever I got a new soul or hit a reward milestone.
After all of these good things I’ve shared with you, I know that we currently have some issues with the game for example, bots or inflation. And in my case, this situation made me spent a couple of bucks for pheons, but along with a couple of good timed decisions involving the AH, I was able to accomplish my goals with my main/alts.
I feel like a lot of concerns like, cadence of new classes, pace of new content being added to the game, in-game gifts, difficulty, experience with other players, etc., are really subjective for each person so I won’t add another opinion to the endless discussion, but I will share my mantras for this game:
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Everything someone says to you in game, isn’t personal so don’t take it that way.
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The honing system is a blessing compared to other mmo’s, so take failing as the norm and celebrate when you succeed. Before you know it, pity system has your back.
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Everything you do in this game comes with a reward sooner or later, take the time to realize that eventually you will get what you want, if you keep at it long enough.
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Look for parties that share your same gear / level of commitment of your character, don’t expect to be carried or to carry people unless you are in the mood for a good deed.
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The people that are in charge of games, most likely are doing their best with every decision they make, they are human beings that can make mistakes. Reality is the only version we have so accept it and make the most out of it. Don’t feel entitled just because you play the game on a daily basis, no one forced you to play it in the first place.
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If you are not having fun, take up new challenges, explore new things, and find new people to play with.
As a final note, this game looks like it has been made with a lot of love judging by the level of detail of some things, so I feel like a little bit of kindness goes a long way towards other players.
With love
Greymoon