This will be my feedback of the ToS iCBT. I have things to say about the game in general, about classes and other specific stuff. This feedback follows no specific order of topics. I will just write, what is on my mind after those days of testing. I will however seperate it by things I liked and aspects I didn’t like.
inb4: “This is not RO!!!111oneoneeleven”. Yes this is not Ragnarok online. However Ragnarok had certain things that made it special. I will draw comparisons to RO, WOW and other MMOs who are objectively good or well made. Get over it.
Let me summarize my thoughts on the Beta in one to two sentences first: “I cannot wait to play the finished version of ToS, but this game is FAR from finished. I really hope ToS will not see release until mid 2016, because there is a lot to improve”
Things I liked:
Party events: People were eager to form parties. This alone gives me hope for the generel community of this game. While being in a party I loved when a party event came up (field boss). Not only could you hunt for funny headgears, but you were forced to use some sort of communication within the group. I like that very much. Thumbs up for that.
Gem crafting: I’m pretty torn on this one. I have not yet seen a game, where you get a disadvantage and with it a slightly bigger advantage. It might work, but it hurts to sacrifice one stat point for another. Also, the system can and will be exploited: You can easily upgrade your gems to extremely high levels with low level tradable items. Just buy everything on the Market that’s unter 20 silver per piece and pump it into your gems. This makes gem crafting really easy but less frustrating.
Graphics: The graphics are supreme. Nothing more to say on this one!
Huge level range for parties: As I was level 53, I was still able to play in a party with 30-50ish players in Tenet Gardens and make decent EXP. I could also go the Veja Ravine joining a 40-60 party. This gives you more options on supporting friends and playing with a broader variety of players. Good thing.
Crafting: At first I didn’t like the idea, that you could only craft one item per recipe. But actually I don’t mind at all. This keeps the market a little bit more interesting and less flooded.
Things I didn’t like
The lack of variety: Do three quest, kill a boring boss, do another three quests, kill another boring boss. This began at lvl 1 and continued all the way I played (lvl 54). In between the level gaps you had to grind 3-5 hours until new quests got available. This is mainly my biggest issue with the game. besides leveling you had almost no option to do ANYTHING ELSE. RO had minibosses which were thrilling to hunt or rare items to farm. WoW had interesting dungeons and battlegrounds and pets and whatnot. So far even RO2 (TLotS) had more opportunities for its players. I yould rant on about this point all day long, but people had already criticized it so much, I will leave it at that.
The Card Game: I don’t even know what to say here. This minigame is embarrassing.
The grind: I actually don’t mind grinding. But in ToS it feels like a chore. I’d rather do some housework.
My Ranger’s damage: I don’t know if I skilled wrongly or if I am just a bad player, but it seemed to me that at some point my Ranger’s damage didn’t progress. I saw Highlanders jumping around doing AoE auto-attacks with 600+ damage at lvl 40 while I (60 STR, 40 DEX, +4 epic Bow for lvl 40 with lvl 4 green Gem, etc…) auto attacked for 70-150 damage, depending on the enemies defense. While fighting quest-bosses I dealt 20-30 damage per hit at level 52. But the worst part was comparing my AoE-attack (Multishot) with a wizard’s Earthquake. Multishot: Has to be charged while standing still, hits an area several times and then ends, divides its damage between the affected targets. Earthquake: Had to be put on the ground, stayed there for very long, monsters could later be moved into the zone to be damaged and it dealt 3-4 times the damage to EACH mob, what Multishot dealt added up. I would really like to see some improvement here.
The lack of a reliable income source: At a certain level you have to be very lucky to increase your silver earnings.I made the most silver from Tenet Garden (Mark Gloves, Pants, Kite Shields and so on). After that I was practically stuck between 20k and 30k silver.
The lgeneral lack of equipment: A handfull of weapons for level 15 and then the same for level 40, 75 and 120. This is laziness at its best. Please put some more effort in the item development.
Durability. I agree that durability is okay to have in an MMO. But in ToS you had to repair several times per grind without dying once. This is a bit over the top. Turn down the speed of durability loss and make it more expensive if you must.
Item potential: I agree that there has to be a limit to how often you can upgrade, enchant or socket an item. But you could just set a limit for each of those. The potential system sucks, especially for trading purposes. Some people like to do get economic and buy and resell stuff. This is a very important aspect of a market system and with potential you dismiss that. AT least don’t reduce the potential when through trading.
The sudden end of the main questline: I understand that in order to progress, you must have a certain level. But at some points the questline simply ends, if you do not have the respective level to get the next quest and you are left wondering, how to go on. At least notify a player in the quest tab, that the main questline will continue in X levels.
The heavy focus on auto-attacks. As a non-Spirit class you have so little SP, that you cannot even do a skill rotation. All you can do is spam your strongest 1-2 skills until your SP is empty (which will happen WAY too fast) and then auto-attack for the rest of the time. This is boring as hell.
Profanity filter: Holy ** this ** is annoying. I understand that you have to “protect” the younger and even more sensitive ones of your players. But at least let me decide if I want to use the profanity filter. I’m in the end of my 20s for ** sake >_>
Shout Chat: Maybe I am old fashioned, but I don’t see a place for shout chats. If you want to write something, anyone can read, go to a capital city. I’ll just say it: The chat system in WoW is perfect.
This cuncludes my feedback. If something alse comes to mind, I will add it later. Feel free to discuss.