I used to play this game a long time ago, when I joined, it was at a time where every game was trying to ruin themselves. Catering to casuals with EQ gear and oversimplified stats that aren’t very customizable, but this was a game that was only going up. At least when I joined, after joining, I saw a lot of bad changes and remember that the community wasn’t big on having a voice. Especially for stuff that didn’t affect them directly. However being away from the game for so long and then checking back in I can see how much worse some of these classes got. The one that really shocks me though is Enchanter. Enchanters Enchant Earth used to be an amazing skill. It used to enable you to block without a shield, and would increase your block by a percentage. It was extremely strong and enabled an otherwise completely unviable class line (Scout) in PvP. Now it’s just a small increase to your block penetration.
There are others that are really disappointing like how Wugushi no longer has bugs. Jincan Gu was by far the strongest skill on that class, possibly one of the strongest skills in the entire Archer class line. Yet not overpowered, but somehow the community let that go. IMC was like “I’ma take this” and everyone is just like “Alright whatever”
I don’t think this game is ever going to make a come back and as much as I wish to play the older version of it I don’t think I will ever come back. However I notice many asking for a classic server, which made me feel the need to post somewhere to tell you all. It’s not a classic server you need as much as a server where things aren’t removed. Additions almost never kill a game, I can think of a single game that was killed by adding stuff to it. The things that usually kill a game are the times when the devs take stuff away from the players. EQ Gem, taking away stuff from classes like Druid, Enchanter, Wugushi, Bokor, etc. Taking away the ability to customize heavily, Whether it be by taking the class choice system down from 9 to 3, or any other method of removing customization. This is the stuff that kills games.
The most appealing part of a classic server, is the hope that it never has stuff removed from it. However I’d be just as down to play a current version of the server if it just undid all the removals and EQs over the last 6 years. I’m not even talking about nerfs, you do too much damage, it’s fine to lose some of it. It’s when mechanics like your BLOCKING SKILL get removed and replace with junk like a slight stat boost to an opposite stat that it stops being just a “Nerf” and is outright just taking something away from the game.
I have a lot of reasons I don’t play this game right now, and not a single one of them is “They added _____” It’s all “They removed ______” and “They equalized Gem Feud” Looking back at it, I stuck with this game through some pretty absurd stuff. Idk if this bug currently exists, but back when I played Linker had the ability to 1 shot anyone they want to so long as there is a monster nearby, because they would bypass the massive reduction that was given in PvP because the game had too much damage without the reduction. Linker would turn you into a level 1 Kepa and overkill you 255% for whatever the max damage in the game was. That bug lasted forever, the devs refused to acknowledge it and despite that I continued to play this game. It’s the removals that killed it for me, and I just wish this community had bothered to fight for anything as IMC dragged it all out the door leaving you all in this empty shell with nothing fun leftover.