So...
Here is my full take as a soloing pally... yeah, I know many do not consider soloing as a play-style that should be considered for ANYTHING in MMO's - group/raid and that is it.... but anywho.
Overall the difficulty curve was consistent... but that was pre-"Nerf" of the pally class... and from my PoV is was a nerf.
It would be fairly consistent to be fairly slow, taking on white cons or just-blue cons - then after you grind to the next level, the next 2 levels are fairly quick and easy(er) in battles - the level there after is slow because things usually go light blue.
So you basically have a 4 level curve in a location (1 level slow / difficult) --> (2 levels normal) --> (1 level slow / easy)
If you have a camp with a named, the named is usually quite hard but could do it... when pally had, essentially 2 "full heals" and the 15sec of invulnerability, generally allowing you 2 spells while DA, 2 nukes 2 heals or 1 of each, or RUN if your oom - but with the removal of the pet (essentially a full heal, that takes about few rounds as it would cast a heal- and beat on your target a smidge smidge... it also was useful for trains because as it could take agro from a few merbs while you get some distance.... but that is all gone now .... and we got a random proc on a cool down skill...and what.. 2 group based increases that are super minor? ... yay...
So with the new pally kit, I do not know how viable soloing in named camps will be- before the pet and DA would be up and ready by the time you got a new name pop, rarely when you got a name- then name pop it could get dicey.
They also are pushing 1h+shield - and the itemization on 1h weapons is purely "everyone else" aka dual wield balanced - so knights are at a DPS disadvantage going 1h, this will hurt during leveling because so many of your strike skills and ratio based - so 2hs are better, but you are then missing out on essentially an entire line of skills and the majority of interrupts. It is like there is a very rare "oh yeah, knights" dude when making item drops and will make a 1h that is knight only with a 2h ratio... but every other person making item drops is like "Why should a Pal/SK sword be 20/25... that is insane!, if a rog had a 20/25 oh my lordy!!!!....so.... 15 /25 it is... oh this 2h sword? oh it needs to be a 40/45.... why are knights not using 1h?"
Zones are too big, everything is too big and everything is REALLY too big if SoW is only 30min... NH is too big...
Almost EVERYWHERE has a "lulz random wondering mob +10-20 levels higher than the person/group sitting there" that wonders through... yeah we all have the fondest of memories getting shredded by a griff or smashed by a sand giant... but this is almost everywhere.. skelly parade in FP, random undeads in glass flats - like "dont you camp that zoneline! hahaha!"
You can only see during the height of the day, and that is NOT 50% of your time, its about 25% - dusk, night, dawn, you cannot see it is annoying... do not say light stones or fire beetle eyes, or lanterns that illuminate..what...20 feet around you? yay.... turn shadow off, because even during the day EVERYTHING is making shadows inside and out etc etc. oh my lord GET OVER THE LIGHTING EFFECTS just make the game you can SEE AND PLAY.
I did not like exploring because YOU CANT SEE ANYTHING, so everything is a risk situation, you do not have good sense of knowing where you are physically in relation to your surroundings because YOU CANT SEE and.... you do not have a map.
Factions are rough, doing The Bends neck quest, it felt long in the tooth to just get that done, and that is a "low level" quest line that should not require too too much grinding... it felt like getting stupid chardok faction slaughtering goblins.
If what they say is true with DE faction, that is worse than EQ2's Qeynos<->FP betrayal factions... whew...
Economy: People are still selling things with only days left to a wipe... this says much about the economy, people can argue it good or bad, but with 2 more starting zones, no connected bank, hard faction hurtles etc. the first month(s) in EA are going to be very very rough... money existence will not support the demand on items that will happen. Generally when someone is buying an item, they are reaching up from their current status / ability to acquire, yet the money is so tight and sparse it is going to regress prices. A level 15 trying to buy some stuff that a 35 is getting, wont have lifetime money access to the level of coin that level 35 player is going to want... and cant you disenchant things? people will poof items rather than sell because anyone that wants to buy just does not have access to that amount of money.
Twinking will happen ofc, and that is high level to high level- item for item type trades and or just money drops, because you already have gotten to the level where money generation is "normal"
Before I jumped into beta, and read "This game does not value your time" I was like "lulz neither did EQ!! ahah".... but yeah that is what this is.
Do I like it, yeah because its like EQ, I enjoyed being able to solo - as I mostly play from work and am AFK on/off a ton, but being able to then group when I can... and then raid once higher when time avails itself... but there is too much... just... tertiary nonsense and noise going on.
But there are things that just, kind of, make it not worth it... 1 being zone size... and that is not going to change... they wont make it NOT a half hour run to VoZ or whatever... portals are not the answer right now to solve that... Sight - visual acuity it a big thing and they seem damned to change it or address it.
Level 29 (just not feeling like getting 30... and I am like 1 bubble away...)
I have done- NH->SD->Wyrms/AC-FP and 1 small time in VoZ - I ran through SGS...I stepped foot in the Ashira town...
I feel like I have not seen much, but at the same time there was not "much" in "only 30 levels... of 60" - seems that there is more of an opening up of places in the 45+ range... granted, some of that lower scope was that I was soloing.
I think a solid group of even 2/3 can find much success in the game, shaman + knight + whatever would be quite good at almost everything. As a pally, if I just had a DPS friend I could do a ton of stuff more efficiently.
Is the game worth it? I still do not know... its not 15$ but more of 15$ I know I am going to most of the time be throwing away... and I really like coffee, so 15$ of coffee a month is worth a lot to me as a caffeine addict.
I honestly feel this would be a runaway hit for the market its targeted to if:
Shrink the zones
Let the people see!
Get your class "vision" under control
