Now that I have made it to level 27 I want to share a little feedback on the revamp.
Pros
- Really good job on streamlining the questing and adding some flavor to the quests
- Unnecessary travel seems to be really reduced/eliminated - nice touch
- Fast travel costs are really improved compared to what it was at launch
- Combat seems to be much better and far less of the nonsense is occurring that was issues back at launch - it seems simplified / a bit easier.
- Taxes are much more fair (maybe because the player base hasn’t went rogue yet and started charging excessive fees)
- Crafting Exp rates are fantastic, I’m able to keep everything up with a reasonable amount of harvesting
- Nice touch with first time crafting exp bonuses
- Harvesting exp is much better / this seems finely tuned and appropriate
- Greatsword is a fun addition to the weapons
Cons
- I am level 27 and still on level 17 main story quest
- There are several possible fixes - change the rewards from Side Quests to not give exp but more coin or rare harvestable items / remove adventuring exp from crafting/exploring
- I don’t mind being a little ahead from doing all the side quests but if you are going to be 35 on the level 20 main story it’s kind of out of whack. This is not a game where you have numerous alts so the exp rates need to be a little more tight with the storyline. I shouldn’t be expected to skip all the games content to just to stay within a reasonable level of the main storyline
- My crafting is stuck because the town doesn’t have T3 crafting stations and there is no way to fix that when the people running the town won’t admit more people
- Consider removing the ability for the community to control the towns crafting equipment. Simplify the system so that it is just a matter of leveling up the town through contributions. This is a huge pain point relying on sweaty neckbeards to run the towns. It was a major flaw at launch and it doesn’t seem to have been addressed at all.
- It is painful to get the first house, it is also painful to even run around town endlessly trying to find the cheapest house. Please create a housing shopping interface where I can buy the house and it just takes me too it.
- Housing is a reward at like level 15 but you don’t have enough coin until 25+ - Please look to improve the coin earned and/or reduce housing initial purchase cost - like 75% or 90% off your first home instead of half. Alternatively, move the first house perk back 10 levels and move something else up 10 levels.
- The corruption events should be solo - no one does these so its content wasted. I never find people looking to do these as a group in level appropriate corruption invasions. Please consider fixing these - they are kind of fun but should be a little easier then they are.
Overall, the revamp is really cool it is fun to play again, I hope there is a plan to revamp 26-60. I look forward to logging in now and less like a job to go harvest trees for 4 days.
There are still lingering issues as outlined in some of the cons…the game needs to continue its refining efforts to even get people to the end game.
I’m not in a big hurry because 25-50 was terrible before and if it hasn’t been touched I plan on taking my time and doing all the 1-25 zones before I move on to other zones. I hope this gives them time to look into some more fine tunings/revamps before venturing to the mid level and 50+ zones