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300+ hours as archer-mage in R27 and R28, impressions of novice.

Discussion in 'Release 28 Feedback Forum' started by Spinok, Apr 21, 2016.

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  1. Spinok

    Spinok Avatar

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    The game is great, and with each update it became better, R28 was very very good update:cool: I will try to say my impressions about main parts of the game. I will play this game and with me already playing two my RL friends, forth is pending, one more pvp team for server :cool: Its my third MMO in the life, first and second was UO and EVE.

    At the start I decided that my avatar will be archer-killer and should be good in both PVE and solo PVP and also be able make weapons and light armor for himself.

    1) Early stages of the game: quests are great and give not bad ammount fo money and Exp. For me as an archer it was good. Map is pretty big, but north of the continent is empty. Archer development is pretty hard at the beggining(you should find monsters with low movespeed which are good to fight with ranged combat, archers NPC are really kick your ass:mad:, also for young archer two enemy NPC is already a problem), later I saw, that my friend melee fighter could farm higher level locations on the same adv. level/or farming faster same locations, but it is a lore for this so its ok(he could tank archers and multiply enemies in platemail, you couldnot in a leather).
    Exploring is good but it can be great, we just need more interesting random encounters(for example uniqe traders, NPC with quests, maybe caravans of hostile NPC with good loot and timer for the scene and more(same for high level random encounters)) and think about other bonuses which avatar can gain from active exploration (random uniqe locations , secret random chests with loot with not big time of live).

    2) Late stages of the game: Its nice, its not just grinding(not at all at the moment generally:D) you should find the different ways how avatar can develop faster. Also I understand that for now it isnt much high-level content, but I can dream about the content which could be created for high level characters in the sota world. For now every high level avatar (not pure of course, you cannot be effective in this game if you are pure fighter/archer/mage) can EASY do solo any solo monster on the map(dragons, strong golems and etc) mainly becouse of really bad AI of high level mobs and permastun problem(I always thought that dragons are extremely power mages or have great defence against magic, but its not a problem to stun him for 5 minutes, using again and again only one low level spell, and also dragons loot not worth used arrows o_O)
    PVP is already great, gives tonns of adrenalin and huge ammounts of combinations. Also seems that every strategy has counter-strategy. :p

    3) Game economy - IMHO economy is one of the main problems of the game. Money is not worth anything. Really you can easy get till 5-10k gold per hour solo on high level in not just gold expedition, you will get some ammount of EXP too(for example cobold/bandits control points, even when they high level they are weak, and longswords and longbows selling price is ~50 gold(week ago it was 100-130 for longbow:)), and if guild will make gold haunting effective(spawn maps,scouts,baits, teleports and etc) they will earn huge ammounts of money just haunting in even high level zones. Two high level characters in low level zone could work same fast and devastating as nuclear missile and earn even more ammount of money(IMHO best way here is deny access to high level characters into low level zones at all), really hyperinflation can appear or nobody will trade anything usefull.
    To make money worthing smth. we need some ways how money can be destroyed but it should not affect low level characters.
    At this time for high level character(with far not perfect crafting skill) crafting and deterioration of armor and weapon is not a problem at all(also i think that it is not reasonable to make this rate higher, in this case we will get just usability problems, not money exit globally).
    Another the way which can make unreasonable haunting in lowlevel zones for Gm characters and global money exit for high level guilds is unique/better loot from high level bosses:rolleyes:, for example such loot as parts of the treasure maps which you have to encrypt by NPC (for example encypting process could be for 1-7 days or even month in RL? ) and costs dozen/ hundreds thousands of gold or reasonable ammout of resourses which you can find only in high level zones(better if only in pvp zones). What unique loot can be in treasure ? for example consumable scrolls/scrips/books/runes which increase magic attunement/Str/Dex/Int/life/Focus/critical chance/stun chance/resistance/one random of those, to not destroy the balance make maximum cap of use, or make each next(even second) same consumed script gives you much less(IMHO this way is better - it wont affect the value of it in gold and its good for trading too).
    Another think that i would like to notice IMHO we need magic items as uniqe loot which can competite with crafted items. Hope it will appear in the future.

    Here can be many proposals but in general to make money worth it should be capitalism(when risk is rewarded(so I`m sceptic about point of view that PVP and not PVP players should have same PVE experience, most unique things and most unique resourses avatars should be able to find in ONLY PVP zones, its good for economy, opposite point of view is bad for economy, early or later it will gain us to hyperinflation) with money exit in global scale and many gameplay services which affect high level characters and guilds.

    4) PVP: PVP is great. Solo pvp at the night in all shardfalls is very impressive and atmospheric. But seems that it can play more important role in Sota and can help to balance many things:
    Ransom price is very small.
    IMHO it should be increased at least 10 times, maybe more or changed to this way: Ransom can be divided for 2 parts: money punishment for death which partly transfer to the killer(you have to pay anyway for next 24 hours or you will have strong penalties (for example you couldnot use NPC vendors boats, may be some bank penalties and etc) and its strongly depend from level(for high level character its higher than ransom for even best armor or weapon) and second part - ransom for item(with structure as now), in this case high level PVP players will wear their best armors and weapons to decrease probability of death)
    Loot system.
    I think a little bit hardcore system will be better and almost all pvp players liked this and this wont affect non pvp players at all: in the case of being killed(Killer loots one equiped random item anyway and get ransom for 2 items(one equiped and one in inventory) in the case of compulsory payment for being killed(as I propose higher), it wont affect any desire of using best possible weapon and armor.
    Generally I dont understand at all: which kind of uniqe armors and weapons, high level character would afraid to lose at all?
    Guildwars.
    I read a little bit about this and I hope it will be great. But it could be even better. When avatar join the guild he gain huge ammount of bonuses, IMHO here should be some limitations. Ability to start a war against PVP guild its ok. Ability to start war against not PVP guild should be exist too(of course with limitations: for example non PVP guild can be at war only one week in month and it cost for agressor HUGE(million for example) ammount of money). Also its good to have an abiility to pay a ransom for not declaring a war.
    Its all about power and economy really.
    Another possible feature is: When guilds are in war, players from guilds dont see each other on the global map but if they met in the circle on the map with pretty small radius both of them will get PVP encounter with 1 minute unable to exit timer. Another thing: its good to find a reasons for guilds to move huge ammount of goods or resourses on a big distance, it can be building of something or you they can use this with NPC for quests and etc.(it will bring in the game interesting mechanics of spying, intelligence, logistics routes attacks)

    P.S. All of this from my point of view, I understand that we play in prealpha but I really loved this game, hope thet this post can be usefull for someone.
    P.S.S. Sorry for my english, I`m Russian and didn`t checked grammar at MS word, just fall a sleep at the end of the post:confused:
    P.S.S.S. If this post will be interesting for community i will write on the weekend another one about combat and skill impressions, crafting, features, bugs, errors and some tips for young and not young archers.
     
  2. Quenton

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    Good post. Which magic skill tree did you go down? You say you're an archer-mage but I only see talk of archery!
     
  3. Spinok

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    For now I`m focused on Air, Moon, and Death trees, mainly innates and buffs, some active skills for stun and healing using death magic. Bit later I will choose between Fire and Water magic, I think I will choose fire(by default its good to choose Water but I dont like default ways). At last I will learn Chaos magic, it is must have for night hunter PVP style, becouse of powerful combo with moon magic.
     
  4. Fionwyn Wyldemane

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    Welcome Spinok! It's always refreshing to get a new perspective of SoTA. I found your post thoughtful and informative. Thank you :)
     
  5. Mata

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    Welcome Spinok!
     
  6. Leelu

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    Hiyas Spinok ! A most hearty welcome.
     
  7. Quenton

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    I don't know what you mean by "default ways" (even starting as a mage gives you fire skills for no good reason). I've played both fire and water, and I think water is probably the weakest magic skill tree in the game at the moment.
     
  8. Oba Evesor

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    Unstacked my Water will crit for 250+ and Ice arrow slows for 104% (a 5 stack is like 130%!!). Basically I never take a hit in PvE because of the Stuns (from Air) and Slows. They don't get near me, and if they do I stun them. Water and Air together are way OP in PVE.
    The good thing w/Fire is the AoE spells. Water doesn't have that, but combine it with an AoE from Air, like Discharge, then you are all set.

    Plus Fire wont hurt things like the Dragons, Phoenix or the Fire Ellie in Nightshadse Pass (Xivara or whatever), but my Water stops all those creatures in their tracks and crits for more on them because of the way attunes work right now.
     
  9. Curt

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    I would say moon magic is weaker after all it has no Attack spells.
     
  10. Beaumaris

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    Welcome Spinok!
     
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  11. Beaumaris

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    Does anyone find moon mezzes to be better than air/water stun/slows?
     
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  12. Noric

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    Since mesmerize breaks on damage, they are weaker than pretty much everything unless you just want to split apart groups. I liked using the moon one because it was more fun to use (more tactical planning and actually is a targeted skill), but until the other AoE crowd controls get nerfed i don't think they are as good.
     
  13. Retro

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    Great post, thanks for the insight. May I ask what Adventure and Producer level you have achieved so far?

    Welcome
    Spinok
     
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  14. 2112Starman

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    Same here. I started a few weeks before last wipe and hit it hard over the past 3 months (lvl 73). I really dont have many complaints.
     
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