I really don’t know where to start. There’s too many things to mention that I regret that I didn’t take notes of all my rants and complaints about IMC and their game.
IMC as a Publisher
Guess I’ll start with this. ToS had an extremely bad start with the founder’s system. Actually, the idea wasn’t really bad IF it wasn’t for that ridiculous 3 months headstart for those who purchased the most expensive tier. They did change it to 1 month instead for all tiers but that’s still a huge middle finger to free players, and to think the game was advertised as FREE TO PLAY. 1 month advantage is still way too much, founder’s was a really bad move by IMC.
Next thing is there was no other servers aside from 2 NA servers at the start. IMC said they need more sales data before they can decide to open up other regional servers. That’s like saying “Give your money first then we’ll think about it”. That’s a really really bad business practice.
Indecisiveness. IMC just keeps revising and revising stuff, they obviously lack experience or just simply having poorly made decisions. Like the changes on founders, the changes on token prices, etc.
Tree of Savior Gameplay
This game is extremely linear. IMC is trying to avoid too much % based gears, stats, skills, etc. so that they can control the game better. In short, everything is laid out.
Forced questing. This is really a huge issue. From CBT, there were already alot of players ranting about how quests are so forced. Some players literally find questing tedious and hassle. Purpose of the game is to make people have some fun, not do chores.
Penalty for those who engage enemies with significantly lower/higher level than theirs. This is another huge contributor that makes the game linear.
Gearing. This one is extremely linear as well. You do have 3 armor type choices but the stats favors only few classes per type. What I wanted to see instead was like armor sets on Dragon Nest or Aura Kingdom. The armors have different set effects that favors different builds to promote diversity.
- A set that favors evasion builds
- A set that favors high crit chance and crit damage builds
- A set that favors raw damage builds
- A set that favors skill spam builds
The list goes on but no, we literally have to walk the path IMC have set for us.
AOE AOE AOE. You don’t have AOE? You are useless. The developers advertized the game as full of diversity due to their 80+ classes available. What happens in-game instead is that we’re forced to include some reliable AOE classes on our build so we can compete and stay relevant on higher level content. Look at Alemeth, Evac, Storage, Workshop, Maven grinds, they always need AOE because there are alot of beefy mobs. Earth Tower … need I say more? This literally kills the diversity they are promoting, everyone is forced to have AOEs whether it’s PVE or even PVP.
Anti-RMT, Anti-Bot, Anti-Gold Sellers Methods that doesn’t work. OMG … I just don’t know what to say. They chose to punish players for the sake of “not” actually being able to stop RMT. Their anti-RMT methods doesn’t prevent gold sellers at all. I actually sent a thoroughly explained method to prevent RMT. It was to copy Onigiri or Warframe’s currency where cash currency is literally the game’s currency not silvers, golds, talts, etc. If we had cash currency as the game’s currency for trading, the gold sellers would stop. Even if they do engage on hoarding cash currency from the market as well, at least this does not destroy the game’s economy because cash currency will always be limited unlike silvers which they can produce infinitely. With cash currency as our trading currency, even if there are bots, market will remain healthy. Now now, people might say “THATS EXTREMELY P2W!”, Warframe uses this system and go ahead try Warframe, tell me how it’s so P2W. As a free player of Warframe with only $18 total spent, I have an arsenal that can cost almost $1000 worth. Not to mention, the game is 100% bot free and gold seller spam free.
No gameplay fluidity. Skills = cast in place > wait for animation to end > cast another skill > repeat. This is really a huge turn-off for me. The gameplay is so stagnant, it’s super dull and plain. While some skills do have mobility as you cast them, they are very very few. On Dragon Nest, you can usually cancel the ending animation of a skill to cast another skill THUS making the skill spam alot more fluid. TOS does not have that, you literally just do the same pattern I mentioned above all over and over. Look at how most AOEs are in this game, cast AOE while standing > point an area > release the AOE > repeat. What’s the actual difference between Flame Ground, Pole of Agony, Flare Shot, Throw Gu Pot, Frost Cloud, Boom Trap, Zaibas, etc. etc.? Oh right, NOTHING, they just have different animations and different way to do damage, everything is just cast in place > choose area > release. That’s totally non-creative. How about a Psychokino actually being able to suck in a group of mobs then can continue it with a very strong melee magic. Or a Pyromancer being able to float mid-air and able to move while having a bunch of fireballs spinning fast around the body. Archers actually being able to kick a bunch of enemy upwards then quickly followed by an anti-air arrow spam. Hunters being able to ride their pet using a buff which also enrages the pet increasing it’s stats massively and giving the Hunter a new skillset while mounted like a huge AOE bite or a long range lunge that makes the pet do a huge AOE swipe at the end of the animation. Swordsman C1 actually having a basic gap closer skill with short cooldown so that every swordie in-game won’t have problems engaging in of a battle quickly. But NO, IMC just wants everyone to stand in place > choose area of aoe > release.
Misleading skill descriptions or lack of information. There’s just too many to mention here but that’s literally it. There’s way too many skills that lacks core information and usually misleads players that can potentially destroy their builds.
Dungeons are all tank and spank. Bunch of mobs set in specific places. Bosses having zero mechanics. Obviously, it’s different on Earth Tower since that content actually has mechanics but for the normal dungeons, they can literally make you fall asleep. Some bosses do have some bit of mechanics but it’s not really exciting nor engaging.
I was actually just trying to cope up with everything I mentioned above but this was the last straw.
IMC has one of the worst ticket support. I actually kept reporting them glitches and bugs but they really take so long to reply AND sometimes will just ask you if the bug is still persisting or not so you have to file another ticket and tell them that yes, the bug is still persisting.
The worst part is, we all know IMC disabled buyback to prevent a certain abuse. They also do not give warnings when selling a higher rarity item. I actually accidentally sold my well invested 2H-Bow because I play alot of archer alts to do boss rush runs (as suggested by IMC, make multiple characters) but since you can’t lock items when transferring, I usually leave my weapons unlocked so yea eventually that accident happened. I reported it and said I wasn’t abusing anything so I asked if they can retrieve it for me and NOPE, they said there’s absolutely no way to get the item back. Just wow, I mean, they just disabled the buyback feature so its certainly possible to get the item back but no, they said there’s absolutely no way to retrieve it. I’m like on the edge of a cliff with all the problems I have with IMC and this, this ticket reply is what pushed me off the cliff.
So yup. That’s it for Tree of Savior. I do hope that the game will still improve because it has alot of potential. For now, I have to say my goodbye. Who knows though, maybe the game will tempt me to come back.
P.S. I think I still forgot to mention some other stuff but that’s it for now. I’ll just edit this if ever.
