First of all, I am not just trying to criticize the game as I do fully enjoy this game and come back from time to time to see how it is progressing. So please, no one take this the wrong way. The new HD update was great. However, as a very casual player who doesnt play constantly and keep up with the updates, I am almost always completely lost. I have several friends that would play more, as would I, but it seems that every time i get the itch to play, I log in, see if there is any cheap gear upgrades in the auction house, kill a few things, then get overwhelmed with what to do. Looking through the online library there are 100s of items, and it seems like its all 100% unavailable or unobtainable. If there is information on how to obtain the items, i feel like its too hard to find. Aside from donating $1000’s to buy the 1 available item in the auction house, I immediately get discouraged.
For example. I log in and see there is a new codex feature for dailies. I find out that my gear isnt good enough to do anything past normal, and sometimes even normal is too hard. So then obviously there has to be a way to get better gear, and not just buy it in the auction house. So i try to dig around, but can never find any good guides on how to progress the gear. I assume that if i played frequently, at one point in time there was some kind of explanation when the gear came out on how to obtain it, but i currently have no idea where to even start.
I feel like the current state of the game only caters to the long time permanent players. Any new player starting today, me included, is lost, and running around with no direction. The game is progressive, meaning, if an event comes out, i almost never have gear even close enough to participate. Now and then i will be trying to kill something and i will be hitting it for 5 or 6 minutes and it wont die. Then ill see someone come along hit the same enemy 1 time and it dies. Or even the reverse, I will be constantly healing, using immune commands on the brink of death the whole time, and then ill see someone who went afk getting hit by several enemies seemingly taking no damage.
This is extremely discouraging. Im not trying to complain and say, give me everything for free. What I am asking is for more direction and instruction. If there is a clear progression tree for gear, I feel that tree would be helpful. Then follow that with instruction on how to obtain those items. I mean, I don’t even know where to go to kill enemies. Im sure there are good zones to hunt at different stages of the game, but no idea how to get there, or if they even exist. The whole Tier 1 – 5 character is great as well, but again, there isn’t much direction on how to do that or the best way to go about obtaining everything needed to do that.
I feel that the current guides on the website are out of date and for the most part irrelevant to the progression of the current state of the game. A lot of the content says, play in groups. Well, im sure we all know, its not like there are people running around everywhere that you can group with. Most of the people online aren’t really talking, probably afk, and the definitely aren’t in the early stages of their character. Maybe some people are willing to help out from time to time, but getting carried through years of progress also make the game less satisfying.
I understand that it is probably impossible for 1 person to detail this much content, but on the flip side, something has to exist to direct people, or like me, people will stumble across the game, log in, play a bit, get overwhelmed, then stop playing for a while or just never come back. I am willing to put forward suggestions, or even make a list of things that I currently struggle with, but I fear that the answers are gona be, well, if you haven’t been playing for the past 10 years, you just cant really play the game like you want, because you have missed key moments in time where items were handed out in events, and some of the gear progression is just plainly not possible.