You basically stated what I was thinking. It could depend on which abilities you get that makes or breaks it.
I will either start with the Shadowhunter or the Gunlancer.
I am leaning a little more towards Shadowhunter because she moves faster and I am thinking for my first class that probably be a better experience.
@zenblack
It is very encouraging to see players express appreciation on the game. Makes you want to stick around even if the game runs into some troubles at the beginning.
That’s the standard start of the game. There used to be prologues that covered levels 1-10, but they have been removed from all regions.
I found that training area really helpful for getting a rough idea of what a class feels like, how flashy their skills are, etc. messing around with a Paladin in the last couple of days, there’s an instance around level 16 that has the first boss that felt like more than a minor nuisance and where I started to get a real feel for what this game will be like later (ofc, an endgame support pally will be quite different from my current build).
At any rate, after a few minutes with different classes I decided to do Pally first, instead of gunlancer, and shadowhunter second. But this is going to vary per person, how long it takes.
I saw a config item to put an outline around your character to help see him/her amidst all the spamming colors. I had read some players toned down the splashing colors but then they couldn’t see the support circles on the ground (though I think they may have adjusted that too). I am pretty sure that I am going to have to tone all that light flashing if I want to sleep after playing.
I think you should play until you get all the abilities unlocked (not the Awakening). So around 35 or something? Some of the later abilities can dramatically change how you play because they replace a middling or poor skill with a really great one or with really transformative tripods. I also think you should respec and try out the T3 tripods on every skill (usually the most impactful) to see how it changes the skill and use it. Some completely change how they are used, going from channeled to instant for example. I think you’ll have a good idea if you like playing it after that point, even if before you were struggling a bit. It may smooth out the gameplay so much that you enjoy how the combat and/or mobility work.
This is of course if you can even stand to get to 35. In my case, for example, I couldn’t force myself to get to 35 on a Gunlancer, as it just disrupted my normal flow in the game with the backstep and I can certainly see how some people might feel the same way about… mage playstyle, or charging abilities or whatever.
There is an option to turn off all effects but your own, your groups, or all. The outline helps define where you are also helping for knowing when you have super armor (you turn different stages of yellow/orange based on when the super armor is active, extremely useful in PVP).
One big thing that caught my interest as well was that the Korean servers are full. Like so full you can’t server transfer. And from all indicators, there are just more and more people joining and wanting to play. That seems so… crazy, for an MMO outside of launch. Every MMO I’ve played that I paid any attention to population was always losing people or just sustaining a churn on expansions.
It does happen - FFXIV had to stop selling the game completely for a month because of the servers being overwhelmed after the expansion came out. Should be less of an issue with Lost Ark here though - I think there is some left over New World capacity that can be reallocated…
I don’t know much about FFIV or keep up on it, so I couldn’t say. The tidbits I heard were that there were some technical issues and problems that created that, but if it was just capacity at some point that is obviously similar. Regardless, that would be another example that kind of fits here. I know the director of FFIV (Yoshi P?) had similar trials where he had to gamble on completely revamping FFIV at some point in an effort to make it better for players (much like Lost Ark) and the FFIV players seem to hold Yoshi in high regard and has a good relationship with them.
Maybe this is a path of modern successful MMO’s. Instead of treating customers like antagonists and sponges to wring every last dollar out of they create a feeling of community between developers and players to make the game better and be willing to listen and make adjustments on that in positive ways. At least in the “East” it seems this is the case.
The options are All, Raid, Party, Group (bonus effects), Opponents, Always Show.
I didn’t have anyone around in-game that I could communicate with to test them so if they have some nuances between say, party, and group (bonus effects), which seem like the same to me, I dunno.
I went through the Morai Ruins yesterday, which is the first real dungeon (there are some smaller instances before, but nothing like that). I’m completely sold. The story instances are great, because they can be soloed, but you can also group up if you want (unlike, say, FF14) and there’s also two difficulties to choose between
People who are fans of LA will tell you it’s nothing like Diablo, that it’s not an aRPG. While that may be structurally true, if you are comfortable with combat in Diablo, Grim Dawn, PoE, etc. I think you’ll be right at home here.
And it just gets better and more diverse from there. I’ll try to be light on the spoil, but there is a really, really fun story “dungeon” a bit later where you are in a siege which was very refreshing and a great time.
Does anyone plan on spending any money on the game if you find yourself enjoying it and if so what would you be prone to buy? Or are you going totally free to play?
I am wondering if skins are really worth it if they are hard to see while playing through the game. I could see myself buying a mount if it looks cool enough because I think that would be more noticeable in the game.
Yeah, one of the reasons I’m getting the bronze pack is that I figure I’ll spend some money in the shop after launch to get a cool mount and maybe a pet. I’ve seen some that are really nice. I also might get a weapon skin or other cosmetic at some point. If the game’s really good and I settle in to stay for a while I’ll buy some stuff to support it.
I was thinking that if I am buying a Bronze anyway then to upgrade to gold for the extra 35 bucks you get what most likely will be 40 bucks worth of the crystals. Which is a good deal thinking of it that way.
