Give an old veteran a rundown: this game in 2k19

atlin
atlin Posts: 2 Arc User
in General Discussion
First things first: hi, howdy, what's up. There is the slimmest possible chance that somebody recognises me (and by slim I mean slimmer than your chance of winning a mount from one of this game's many lootboxes) but on the off-chance somebody does: hi, what's up. (Related to that, I can't believe Astrelle is still active in this community, but mad kudos for being the only familiar face I recognise.) Also if you don't like reading, you can just X out of this thread, fair warning.

Second things second: a bit of context. I was playing Ye Olde PWI back in... uh... well, it was a while ago. I saw the dawn of the anniversary boxes. I witnessed first-hand the beginning of the lootbox craze in this game and won't even lie about the fact that little teenage me totally fell victim to it too. (Thanks for that by the way, PWI, really appreciate it. /s) So when it comes to game longevity, I'm something of a dinosaur; I started playing this game before it had the first expansion and I was one of the players that got extremely disenfranchised extremely quickly with the game's sudden swing to Pay To Win and the dawn of 5APS - mostly because I was playing an archer and the dawn of 5aps told me that if I still wanted to be in a party, I had to be an archer that didn't use a bow and that just sucked.

So I quit, and I never looked back.

Until today. And I'm not going to lie about why I'm back either: I saw this advertisement for some dark winged elf lookin' dude claiming to be an Edgerunner and I said "Oh my good god, is this game being developed by fourteen year old children? I have to go look at this" and so here I am, reinstalling a game for little more reason than to probably mercilessly make fun of it and the joke its turned into. Maybe cry a little bit too. This game was my first ever MMORPG, I made a lot of friends on it and then I watched the lootbox craze and 5APS summarily destroy the community I'd loved so much. I can't help the nostalgia, man, this game used to sincerely be one of my favourite games.

So now that you have the context on me, when I played and why I left, I want to ask this community a question: what is this game in 2019? Fair warning: Imma be hella disappointed if you just link me to a wiki. Is 5APS still the standard for every class and his dog and also his grandma? Are hyper stones still a major aspect of levelling in this game? What new noise have they added and what potentially old stuff have they taken away? This noise about reflection and war avatars is going right over my head, to be clear, because the last "new content" that got added when I was playing was R10 and Nirvana and that was it. I told you guys, I'm basically a dinosaur when it comes to this game. Do people still argue about which Chi path to take? (Demon forever, the only acceptable Sage is a Sage Barb.) Also, what's the community like these days? I'm taking a chance on you guys by posting here; the forums were always a little hit-and-miss even ten years ago but I want to believe that we can get more hits than misses. Don't let me down.

I won't bother to ask if the game is any less pay to win, though, because 1) it clearly is not and 2) people will do the whole "it's optional you can buy it with in-game coins" excuse and that excuse is so tired that every time I hear it, I hear my brain cells dying. Don't come at me with that noise if that's all you have to offer.

TL;DR I haven't played in nearly a decade and I am horrendously curious to know how this game has changed or expanded or if it's just still the Same Game Different Day. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go log into my archer and have an existential crisis about what I'm supposed to do with her. Poor Airy.

Comments

  • mitapi#9696
    mitapi#9696 Posts: 45 Arc User
    Quick rundown
    First off, APS is not a thing anymore. Theres very few people who runs around with an aps set, and if they do they are mostly sins that have it and uses it as a 2nd set of gear - not their main gear. Havent seen any aps archers in years.
    Pay to win - yes absolutely, and its only gotten worse. Optional? You'll have to know what you are doing then.
    The game changed a lot when "rebirths" or "reawakening" were introduced. You can rebirth up to 2 times and it unlocks various important things, such as passives/new skills, entrance to important farming instances, and in general just makes your character a lot stronger. The game pretty much only focuses on past-rebirth characters.
    War Avatars or simply "cards" are basically just a 2nd set of gear you can equip on top of your standard gear. They come in sets and can like your character be leveled up and reawakened.
    "Star Chart" can also be leveled up and stats are random. They also function as an extra set of gear you can equip ontop. They can be quite strong.
    Hyper stones to level is optional. You can level just fine with quests, if not faster, and its gotten even easier recently, plus you get a movement buff to do every quick while you are below level 100.

    Sage vs Demon. A little bit, but not as huge as it has been. The cultivation now continues to Chaotic Soul, then Celestial Saint - for both demons and sages. This cultivation makes you able to upgrade some of your skills into a "Neverfall version" or simply "NF" which is basically a combined version of sage and demon. Having an NF skill means you can put a glyph of your choice on the skill - unlocking special effects of your choice.

    Gear
    Nirvana can now be upgraded to "grade 16". Some refers it as NV3.
    Rank 10 has never been a thing (sorry) its actually Rank 9.
    R9 have upgraded versions, or stages, all way up to stage 4, though in most cases R9.3 is stronger than R9.4 (theres a few weapon exceptions and such). R9.3 was the best armor untill very recently - the new TT armor beats it, at least at the higher stages.
    Theres now a TT4-1 and TT4-2, and the armor needs to be farmed from the instance combined with some boutique items. Theres 3 stages of the armor, and theres currently nobody with the last stage. There may be a few stage 2 pieces, though I have yet to see one (a friend of mine is however very close to his first piece of stage 2), but mostly its nonexsistent. Stage 1 is common but not as strong.
    The weapon that beats the R9 weapon is refered as "G17" or "homestead weapon". Yes, you can get homesteads, and this is also where you farm 1 half of the weapon. Other half is from an instance which require rebirths.

    The community is a lot smaller than back in the days. Forums arent as active anymore either.

    I think that covered the things you mentioned so far- but theres a ton added since your time!
  • eelion
    eelion Posts: 17 Arc User
    edited September 2019
    atlin wrote: »
    what is this game in 2019?
    Pretty old and outdated, but can still be fun depending on what you expect to get out of it. GM presence is non-existent though and there's no communication whatsoever. This is quite a problem since China is probably no longer getting feedback on PWI-specific issues that need to be fixed. Lately, they don't even announce expansions beforehand. They just randomly drop a big patch during the regularly scheduled maintenance day. You just have to roll with whatever you get.
    Is 5APS still the standard for every class and his dog and also his grandma?
    No, except for a few players that are either old alts from back when APS was big or just people that want to experiment with the build. In the case of the latter, it's used as a second set of gear. Basically, using skills is more worthwhile in most situations.
    Are hyper stones still a major aspect of levelling in this game?
    They are an option, but the quest system has been updated and streamlined. Quests give move EXP, mob kill counts have been reduced etc.
    Do people still argue about which Chi path to take?
    Not that much. Spiritual Cultivation was expanded to Chaotic Soul and Celestial Saint. This allows you to fuse some Sage & Demon skills to get the effects of both versions, though some exceptions apply. Not all skills are fused so you can choose to be a (demon) Celestial Saint or a (sage) Celestial Saint. This made Sage & Demon kinda samey so people don't argue about it that much.

    The biggest advantage of fused skills is the ability to use Glyphs on them. Glyphs give your skills different effects so you can customize your skills to whatever you like, but of course some Glyph effects are better than others so the variety is not as big as you might think.
    Also, what's the community like these days?
    It's dead on the forums, but some are active on places like Facebook and Discord. I don't know about the rest. I don't really pay attention to the community.
    I won't bother to ask if the game is any less pay to win
    It's gotten worse, as expected. In the past you could actually compete if you just farmed enough and knew what to farm or merchant. People weren't lying about that. What has changed is that China keeps removing or restricting farming options because they have a huge botting problem over there and they don't care if it effects PWI negatively. If you weren't around during the "golden" era of farming to gear up your toons, you can't compete now without $$$.

    The people that still play this game are either big cashoppers, mild cashoppers, people that have played for years and already have geared toons & alts, and casual players that mostly log in to chat with friends and such.


    PS. If you try out one of the new classes, Edgerunner or Technician, be warned that they are missing customization options. Customization for new models is supposed to come in a future update.​​
  • eelion
    eelion Posts: 17 Arc User
    @heero200 I think my post went *poof* again monkey-47.gif​​
  • heerohex#3018
    heerohex#3018 Posts: 4,795 Community Moderator
    eelion wrote: »
    @heero200 I think my post went *poof* again monkey-47.gif

    Sorted, It should be better for you now as well. After a few posts its normally better.

    Thanks.​​
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  • sam#2624
    sam#2624 Posts: 2 New User
    I stopped playing when R9 was first introduced and APS was rampant... was with Regicide in Sanctuary server. I remember farming TT day in, day out. What was the final boss for TT 2-x... Ancient Evil or something? Was in a lava pit and summoned 3 minions. That **** was challenging back then... Good times.

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