Runes of Magic (Free Fantasy MMORPG)

[Zexion]

So, does anyone on these forums play Runes of Magic (http://us.runesofmagic.com/us/index.html)? It's a lot like WoW, but completely free. That's right. No subscription fee. No up-front paying. No requesting credit card numbers. Just download the 5.7 gigabyte client, another 600 megabytes of game patches, and you can play a great game for free.
I just started playing yesterday, and it's quite fun! If enough other people on these forums play maybe we could make a guild...

PLAYER LIST
OSHA
Zexion
Codice, a Human Mage 15/Priest 5

Freylorn
Corsus, a Human Warrior 10/Knight 10

[psilontech]

Eew.

Another sub-par WoW clone.

How do these people propose to make money from this, anyway?

[Vitruviansquid]

Tell me about it, particularly what people end up paying for, how viable it is to play to max level without paying, and what sets the game mechanics in this one from WoW.

[Zexion]

Tell me about it, particularly what people end up paying for, how viable it is to play to max level without paying, and what sets the game mechanics in this one from WoW.
People pay for completely unecessary special items and potions (for example, exp 150%), and I don't know enough about WoW to comment.

[Innis Cabal]

Wow...the elf on the front page is a total rip off of the art from Ruins of Kunark Expansion from Everquest 2...only recolored. Ew...this game reeks of terrible.

[Zexion]

Wow...the elf on the front page is a total rip off of the art from Ruins of Kunark Expansion from Everquest 2...only recolored. Ew...this game reeks of terrible.
If you're going to criticize the game, then show proof. I've done a few Google searches and turned up nothing.

[Raroy]

Wow...the elf on the front page is a total rip off of the art from Ruins of Kunark Expansion from Everquest 2...only recolored. Ew...this game reeks of terrible.

Ruins (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EverQuest:_The_Ruins_of_Kunark) or Rise (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EverQuest_II:_Rise_of_Kunark)?

People are very hard on mmos around here. And to be fair.....it does look like a wow clone.

[Zexion]

Ruins (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EverQuest:_The_Ruins_of_Kunark) or Rise (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EverQuest_II:_Rise_of_Kunark)?

People are very hard on mmos around here. And to be fair.....it does look like a wow clone.
It is pretty similar to WoW, that's true. But it's also free. :smallbiggrin:

[Vitruviansquid]

What's wrong with it being a WoW clone? WoW's fun. >_>

[Raroy]

Some definitions.

Wow clone is a jargon word for mediocre rip off.

Free mmo is a code word for mediocre rip off.

Free minimum is when there is no point in continuing to play that free game because everybody else payed hundreds of dollars to get the best items in the game and you will never be able to compete.

There are quite a lot of reasons as to why people dislike mmos. It's generally the sheer badness of most mmos.

[Zexion]

Some definitions.

Wow clone is a jargon word for mediocre rip off.
I would like to point out that WoW is an Everquest clone.
EDIT: Actually, WoW is an Asheron's Call clone, and Asheron's Call is an Everquest clone. So please don't judge.

Free mmo is a code word for mediocre rip off.
Hmm... it depends.

Free minimum is when there is no point in continuing to play that free game because everybody else payed hundreds of dollars to get the best items in the game and you will never be able to compete.
Yes.

There are quite a lot of reasons as to why people dislike mmos. It's generally the sheer badness of most mmos.
Most MMOs, yes.

[Raroy]

I would like to point out that WoW is an Everquest clone.


Wow made so many improvements beyond the original Everquest that it's unreal. Mechanics are always similar in mmos, but Wow redefined and improved upon them in every way.

Wow also uses a different design philosophy. Everyquest took lots of effort and work to play*, wow is quite easy and accessible to everyone.

It's not fair to call Wow a clone of anything, because that implies laziness.

*Everyquest was also looked upon negatively by society. Wow was the first open and acceptable mmo, which I can only define as marketing genius.

[Zexion]

Wow made so many improvements beyond the original Everquest that it's unreal. Mechanics are always similar in mmos, but Wow redefined and improved upon them in every way.
I actually edited.

Wow also uses a different design philosophy. Everyquest took lots of effort and work to play*, wow is quite easy and accessible to everyone.
So, because it's easier, it's better? Oh, also, RoM is incredibly accessible. You can log in, and be doing something fun in less than thirty seconds.

It's not fair to call Wow a clone of anything, because that implies laziness.
By the same logic, it's not fair to call RoM a clone of anything, because that implies laziness, which I assure you there is very little of in the game. :smallamused:

*Everyquest was also looked upon negatively by society. Wow was the first open and acceptable mmo, which I can only define as marketing genius.
And that make the game better how?

[Raroy]

Sorry, I was trying to say one thousands things in a short amount of text.

So, tell me in what ways does this game improve itself from wow. Why is this game, as a game, worth playing? You never really specified in you're opening post. Free does not count since that's more of a trade off with blizzard for increased development. Arguing that you pay too much is another topic all together.

I am daunted by that large download file. It must have quite the content.

[Zexion]

Sorry, I was trying to say one thousands things in a short amount of text.
It's fine.

So, tell me in what ways does this game improve itself from wow. Why is this game, as a game, worth playing? You never really specified in you're opening post. Free does not count since that's more of a trade off with blizzard for increased development. Arguing that you pay too much is another topic all together.
Behold:

RoM - WoW
Good Graphics < Better Graphics
Dual Classing > Skill Trees
Pay If You Want To > Pay or Don't Play
Rentable Mounts For In-Game Gold From Level 1 > Rentable Mounts For Out-of-Game Money
Housing From Level 1 ? No Idea

To elaborate, Dual Classing is the ability for one character to have two classes, and play as either. When the lower-level class is being used, they will get the abilities that the other class would have had at that level. When the higher-level class is being used, they get the abilities of the lower-level class at it's lower level.

I am daunted by that large download file. It must have quite the content.
Yup. I think you can download them in 1 Gigabyte increments, though.

[The Glyphstone]

It's fine.

Behold:

RoM - WoW
Good Graphics < Better Graphics
Dual Classing > Skill Trees
Pay If You Want To > Pay or Don't Play
Rentable Mounts For In-Game Gold From Level 1 > Rentable Mounts For Out-of-Game Money
Housing From Level 1 ? No Idea


Huh? How does WoW let you 'rent' a mount for RL cash? The only cash-for-mount is the Sparklepony, which (AFAIK) doesn't function any sooner than a normal mount does.

"Improved low-level mobility" could be a perk, though nowadays it only takes a few days to get to lvl20 in WoW and your first dirt-cheap horse/tiger/wolf.

[Zexion]

Huh? How does WoW let you 'rent' a mount for RL cash? The only cash-for-mount is the Sparklepony, which (AFAIK) doesn't function any sooner than a normal mount does.
Um... sorry, information mistake. :smallredface:

[Zexion]

Oh, and there is one more thing that I am sure there is nothing like in WoW.

Guild (http://us.runesofmagic.com/us/uploads/inline/pic-72-popup.jpg)Castles (http://www.theromwiki.com/Guild_Castles).

[Makensha]

From what I've heard, RoM is supposed to be one of the best free MMOs currently available (RiP Shadowbane). The major drawback I believe has something to do with the late game death system, which favors those who buy items of some kind.

Oh, and about the elf thing, look at the elf on the left of the RoM main page, and then look at the cover are for EQ2: RISE of Kunark

http://us.runesofmagic.com/us/index.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EverQuest_II:_Rise_of_Kunark

[Zexion]

From what I've heard, RoM is supposed to be one of the best free MMOs currently available (RiP Shadowbane).
Thank you for the support. :smallsmile:

The major drawback I believe has something to do with the late game death system, which favors those who buy items of some kind.
Hmm... well, there is an effect called Respawn Weakness that weakens the player by 50% after they die and respawn, but that's actually quite fair in my opinion.

Oh, and about the elf thing, look at the elf on the left of the RoM main page, and then look at the cover are for EQ2: RISE of Kunark

http://us.runesofmagic.com/us/index.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EverQuest_II:_Rise_of_Kunark
Eh... I don't see the elf on the main page. Maybe they have a different main page for Canada/North America? :smallconfused:

[Makensha]

Hmm... well, there is an effect called Respawn Weakness that weakens the player by 50% after they die and respawn, but that's actually quite fair in my opinion.

Eh... I don't see the elf on the main page. Maybe they have a different main page for Canada/North America? :smallconfused:

The guy on the left with a big ax, black armor with some glowing red, blue lightning eyes, and mouth open? You can only see half of him.

Anyways, I believe the thing about the Respawn Weakness is that it still effects you even if you are resurrected by a player unless you use some scroll to get rid of it. It has been a while since I've looked at it though (the idea of downloading 6 GB for a game I might not even like turned me off to trying it just a bit).

[Zexion]

The guy on the left with a big ax, black armor with some glowing red, blue lightning eyes, and mouth open? You can only see half of him.
Oh, I see it. And zoom out (ctrl+scroll) and you will see it's actually an entirely different picture (http://us.runesofmagic.com/us/design/background.jpg).

Anyways, I believe the thing about the Respawn Weakness is that it still effects you even if you are resurrected by a player unless you use some scroll to get rid of it. It has been a while since I've looked at it though (the idea of downloading 6 GB for a game I might not even like turned me off to trying it just a bit).
Yeah, but Respawn Weakness only lasts for a minute, which you can use for mining, woodcutting, trading, talking- anything except for combat.

And yes, I suppose it is a little off-putting... maybe you should ask a friend who has the game to let you try it out for a while. :smallsmile:

[Vitruviansquid]

As for everyone talking about this mysterious game and expressing their doubts... hell, just play the game.

It's free, so what do you have to lose?

<== downloading now

[Zexion]

As for everyone talking about this mysterious game and expressing their doubts... hell, just play the game.

It's free, so what do you have to lose?

<== downloading now
Sweeeeeeet!
If you want power, play a Warden (basically a Druid), a Rogue, or a Knight (the Tank). And (this is very important) make your character on Server Osha, so we can maybe make a GitP guild sometime...

[Vitruviansquid]

What's the deal with the warden, anyways? I thought Warrior = melee DPS, Knight = melee tank. What's the warden's niche?

edit: Currently looking at playing Knight and then another class. What, besides warden, meshes well to make a good "tank"?

[Zexion]

What's the deal with the warden, anyways? I thought Warrior = melee DPS, Knight = melee tank. What's the warden's niche?

edit: Currently looking at playing Knight and then another class. What, besides warden, meshes well to make a good "tank"?
Wardens can fit almost any role.

And... you could try Warrior/Knight, or Knight/Rogue for a slightly more offensive build...

[Makensha]

Yeah, but Respawn Weakness only lasts for a minute, which you can use for mining, woodcutting, trading, talking- anything except for combat.

I'm pretty sure it gets longer the higher up you get. And if you're in a dungeoun. having to wait even a minute before playing more every time you die is tiring at the least. Anyway, I'm going to try to download it, but whether I finish will be determined by how the client works.

[Zexion]

I'm pretty sure it gets longer the higher up you get. And if you're in a dungeoun. having to wait even a minute before playing more every time you die is tiring at the least. Anyway, I'm going to try to download it, but whether I finish will be determined by how the client works.
The downloader took about an hour and a half for me, and the patcher took about an hour.

Note: The game patcher is really confusing, because it appears to stop and start about six times over the course of the patch. THIS IS NORMAL.

[Vitruviansquid]

Okay, so after playing the game a lot last night, and getting a level 12 warrior/9 paladin, I'll say the following:

1. If it'll bother you when a game rips off of WoW, don't play this game. It steals shamelessly from WoW in almost any aspect imaginable.

2. The way you become more powerful isn't with talent trees, but you spend TP (training points?) that you get while levelling to make your skills more powerful. This system is ridiculously complex and can be very counter-intuitive, but fear not, respec's don't need to cost real life cash, by which I mean you get one at level 30 (or is it 30/30) for free, and you can earn them by doing daily quests over more than a month and not spending your reward on anything else.

3. Crafting in this game can be annoying, since you have to wait a long time to gather materials and wait a long time to craft your materials into usable gear/consumables. However, I'm really digging the interlocking crafting system where multiple harvesting professions are required to progress in one crafting profession.

4. Everything in this game is so god-awful complex because the game will mercilessly throw terms and features at you until your head spins. This isn't a problem if you're someone who likes to figure out new systems, but you can't jump in and play as much as in WoW.

5. Community seems great for a free to play game. I've met a lot more nice, normal people than trolls and griefers.

6. I don't know if I'm giving an extremely skewed opinion on this since I've only played some newbie levels and have done no groups or dungeons, but the pace of this game is extremely fast. Things seem to die really really quick, even when I'm playing my Knight, which is supposed to have very bad damage output.

[Zexion]

Okay, so after playing the game a lot last night, and getting a level 12 warrior/9 paladin, I'll say the following:
1. If it'll bother you when a game rips off of WoW, don't play this game. It steals shamelessly from WoW in almost any aspect imaginable.
That's true.

2. The way you become more powerful isn't with talent trees, but you spend TP (training points?) that you get while levelling to make your skills more powerful. This system is ridiculously complex and can be very counter-intuitive, but fear not, respec's don't need to cost real life cash, by which I mean you get one at level 30 (or is it 30/30) for free, and you can earn them by doing daily quests over more than a month and not spending your reward on anything else.
It's not that complex. Spend points to make things more powerful. Get points by doing quests, killing things, and leveling up.

3. Crafting in this game can be annoying, since you have to wait a long time to gather materials and wait a long time to craft your materials into usable gear/consumables. However, I'm really digging the interlocking crafting system where multiple harvesting professions are required to progress in one crafting profession.
Yes, it's quite clever that way. :smallbiggrin:

4. Everything in this game is so god-awful complex because the game will mercilessly throw terms and features at you until your head spins. This isn't a problem if you're someone who likes to figure out new systems, but you can't jump in and play as much as in WoW.
Yes, it's complex, but it's complex in a way that gradually begins to make sense, and then you see that the system is almost perfect.

5. Community seems great for a free to play game. I've met a lot more nice, normal people than trolls and griefers.
I totally agree.

6. I don't know if I'm giving an extremely skewed opinion on this since I've only played some newbie levels and have done no groups or dungeons, but the pace of this game is extremely fast. Things seem to die really really quick, even when I'm playing my Knight, which is supposed to have very bad damage output.
It is a very fast-paced game.

EDIT: Oh, and what makes the higher levels so much fun can be summed up in two words:
Guild. Castles.

[Gourtox]

I used to play this game around the time the Elves expansion thing came out. It is very wow-like and is basically a free wow with some changes. However it is fun and I didn't find the system to be too complex, but that may just be me. I found the dual class system to be interesting and different. I only made it to like 20/20 or something like that. I do reccomend that you try it before you just write it off.

[Kris Strife]

I started a few months before the elven expansion and I still play occasionally, its pretty good. Artemis server.

[Duke of URL]

Looked interesting... right up to the point where I saw there was no Mac or Linux client.

[Freylorn]

Why not?

I'll give it a shot as a W/K.

Downloading now.

Server Osha, you say?

[Zexion]

Server Osha, you say?
Yes. That way maybe we can start a guild.
Oh, also, Elves have a starting area that is WAAAY easier to level in.

[Freylorn]

I'm actually about 3/4 of the way through the installing process at the moment, so if you'd like to hop on, I could meet up with you momentarily.

[Zexion]

I'm actually about 3/4 of the way through the installing process at the moment, so if you'd like to hop on, I could meet up with you momentarily.
Sorry, I have summer camp for five hours, and it's very difficult to get to either starting area after you leave. :smallfrown:

[Freylorn]

Ahh, I understand perfectly.

Some other time then. Even still, I'll be happy to come back here after a few hours of play to post my impressions.

[Zexion]

Ahh, I understand perfectly.

Some other time then. Even still, I'll be happy to come back here after a few hours of play to post my impressions.
I'm back online! Tell me your character's name, class, level, and race, and I'll put it in the first post so that I don't look like the only person playing this! :smallbiggrin:

[silversnowe]

I used to play quite a while back, way before the elves expansion thing. Maybe the expansion changed and added new things now, but I remember being utterly bored at higher levels and eventually uninstalling the game...

[Kris Strife]

Sorry, I have summer camp for five hours, and it's very difficult to get to either starting area after you leave. :smallfrown:

The human starting area is easy to get to. You have an instant travel button on your basic skill list that takes you to the second town you reach.

[Zexion]

The human starting area is easy to get to. You have an instant travel button on your basic skill list that takes you to the second town you reach.
Logar, yes, I know. But the elven island, I don't think you can.

[Cute_Riolu]

I'm about two-thirds of the way through installing it thus far. :D

[Zexion]

I'm about two-thirds of the way through installing it thus far. :D
Great! If you "friend" (shortcut key: "O") my main character (Codice), then you'll be able to see when I'm online, and I can help you with the game. :smallsmile:

[Cute_Riolu]

Great! If you "friend" (shortcut key: "O") my main character (Codice), then you'll be able to see when I'm online, and I can help you with the game. :smallsmile:

Hahah, thanks, I'll probly friend everyone that plays, from here. I'm thinking of Rogue/Scout or Rogue/Mage right now. How practical are traps?

[Zexion]

Hahah, thanks, I'll probly friend everyone that plays, from here. I'm thinking of Rogue/Scout or Rogue/Mage right now. How practical are traps?
What about Scout/Warden?

And traps... I'm not quite sure. The world of what's-it-called is very... expansive, so it might be difficult to predict when an enemy will step over a certain spot without making the enemy aggressive.

[Cute_Riolu]

What about Scout/Warden?

And traps... I'm not quite sure. The world of what's-it-called is very... expansive, so it might be difficult to predict when an enemy will step over a certain spot without making the enemy aggressive.

Yeah, that's why I'm hesitant to go for Rogue/Mage (I keep wanting so say Rogue/Wizard. Too much D&D, I s'pose. :P). However, it might be possible if you had a party willing to cooperate with you. Or when soloing.

As far as other combinations go, I've always been one for the roguish archetype. Mobile striker; in, out, and one of us dead. I might experiment a little, though, who knows.

[Zexion]

Yeah, that's why I'm hesitant to go for Rogue/Mage (I keep wanting so say Rogue/Wizard. Too much D&D, I s'pose. :P). However, it might be possible if you had a party willing to cooperate with you. Or when soloing.

As far as other combinations go, I've always been one for the roguish archetype. Mobile striker; in, out, and one of us dead. I might experiment a little, though, who knows.
How about Rogue/Warrior or Warrior/Rogue? the first has massive damage dealing capabilities, and the second has skills that will enhance the Rogue shared skills...

Oh, also, D&D joke I just remembered: Rouges are, hands down, the most overpowdered class. :smallbiggrin:

[Cute_Riolu]

How about Rogue/Warrior or Warrior/Rogue? the first has massive damage dealing capabilities, and the second has skills that will enhance the Rogue shared skills...

Oh, also, D&D joke I just remembered: Rouges are, hands down, the most overpowdered class. :smallbiggrin:

xD

Well, is there any reason you're trying to poke me away from either of those combos? I'm going to head to bed now, but I'll be on tomorrow, it's finished downloading. Though I do have exams and papers and stuff due on Thursday, so not too much.

[Freylorn]

Righty then - I owe you guys and gals a brief overview and my first impressions!

PHASE 1: INSTALLATION

I wanted to play. Badly. Which probably influenced how irritating this was for me. The entire process was pretty smooth, honestly, just... long. Very, very long. Long download, followed by a long - if automated - patching process. However, this is hardly unique to RoM, so I'll not fault it for the install time.

PHASE 2: CHARACTER CREATION

One of the first things I look for in any free MMO is to see how badly butchered the English is. On the character creation screen, it looked just fine. There's your standard array-of-fiddly-bits that change arm bulk and so on, which I never bother with. There's a fair amount of face and hair styles to choose from though, which is nice.

PHASE 3: GAMEPLAY

The big one. It's honestly your generic WoW setup - get skills, put skills on hotkey bar, use skills to whack things. Nothing special here, but hey, why reinvent the wheel? The English continues to hold up in-game, with only a few noticeable and still easy to understand typos. Grind-wise, it doesn't seem too bad. I played for a decent amount of time yesterday and am sitting at 12/12 level-wise right now - but that's with reading all the text for quests and so on. On a repeat playthrough without all the reading and exploring, it'd probably go much quicker.

Graphically, it's nothing to write home about, but it's passable. And for the price, I can't really complain.

PHASE 4: COMMUNITY

Alright, not quite a phase, but an important aspect nonetheless. I've had nothing but positive experiences with the community so far - so much so that I'm actually a bit surprised. They do have a habit of having a laugh at semi-ironic or irritating help requests ("HELP PLZ!!" from a guy named MasterNoobPwner is a little funny, admittedly) but if you ask in a polite manner, odds are your questions will be answered post-haste. In addition to that, there seems to be a lot of higher-level characters more than willing to lend a quick hand to a newbie struggling with a tough quest. Which is awesome.

So in the end, how would I rate it? Well, I like it enough that I'm still playing it, so it's got my recommendation for a try-out at the very least. After all, it IS free - if a long download.

[Cute_Riolu]

For those of you with experience in this game: is crafted equipment any better than that you buy?

[Kris Strife]

Logar, yes, I know. But the elven island, I don't think you can.

You said either. :smalltongue:

And I think that seems to be the case. A friend made an elf on the server I'm on and I couldn't find them.

[Vitruviansquid]

For those of you with experience in this game: is crafted equipment any better than that you buy?

When I'm running around killing things, the majority of the equipment I'm looting is the same as the craftable equipment. However, I often find quest equipment that could blow either out of the water, like guaranteed blue armor.

Take this with a grain of salt as I'm not in endgame yet (at which point I suspect the best equipment will need to be farmed from bosses, like in WoW and every other MMORPG ever >_>) but I believe crafting/buying craftables to be a necessity in gearing yourself, since you can roll so many more times on getting a blue version of a specific item you need then by killing things and looting.

[Cute_Riolu]

When I'm running around killing things, the majority of the equipment I'm looting is the same as the craftable equipment. However, I often find quest equipment that could blow either out of the water, like guaranteed blue armor.

Take this with a grain of salt as I'm not in endgame yet (at which point I suspect the best equipment will need to be farmed from bosses, like in WoW and every other MMORPG ever >_>) but I believe crafting/buying craftables to be a necessity in gearing yourself, since you can roll so many more times on getting a blue version of a specific item you need then by killing things and looting.

That being the case, I'll probably just grab Alchemy. :P

Oh, and by the way, I'm Gharrion.

[Kris Strife]

Two things to add: Difference between knight and warden is that warden is elf only and knight is human only, same thing with druids and priests.

Secondly: if your new equipment doesn't look as cool as your old stuff, get an advanced aggregator and you can make your new equipment look like the older stuff. You can use the auction house if you don't feel like using the premium item shops.

[Eldaran]

Just thought I'd post my opinions here:

I played to 55/50 on a warrior/mage and 50/45 on a druid/mage. This was when the cap was 55, I think it's 57 now or something weird like that. I also had 11 other chars of varying levels (on two accounts) as I have major altitis (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Altitis).

The game becomes less of a WoW clone as you level up, mostly due to the dual class system. This system is definitely the best part of the game, as it allows for a tremendous variety of classes. For example, my warrior/mage played nothing like any other warrior, I wore a mix of cloth and mail armor and used a staff. I could do massive magic damage from range or in melee, including the best burst damage in the game, though I could also burn through my mana in about 10 seconds.

Really, any class combo at high levels becomes differentiated from others of the same primary, as you gain access to all your elite skills (skills specific to that particular pair of classes) and the general skills of your secondary class. This means the game effectively has more classes than any other one out there. What's more, you can instantly switch your primary and secondary back and forth for free in town so one character can work for two radically different situations.

That said, the game has a major downside that only becomes apparently at higher levels. The time and effort it takes to acquire a full set of gear for your character is tremendous. At high levels all your gear will me made with transmuting, which is essentially a process that lets you take the stats off one item and put them on another, and you can have 6 stats on one item.

Those of you who have played WoW, or most other western RPGs, know the amount of time it can take to acquire an item from raid instances. Well, in RoM you need to acquire 6 items with the desired stats per piece of armor you have to transmute them. This equates into many hundreds of hours of dungeon running, assuming you already have a group and that you're only gearing for one primary. If you're playing something like a knight/mage and want to also play as a mage/knight you'll need two totally separate sets of gear for each primary.

This process of gearing also requires a substantial amount of money to be spent on the cash shop. Thankfully, the game allows you to buy cash shop currency easily through the auction house from other players, and there is (at least while I played) a very dynamic market for it. Still, if you're not spending real life money, this means even more time invested farming items to sell on the AH purchase the necessary currency, further compounding the incredible amount of time it takes to develop gear.

Now, they have made some improvements to this process, from reading the patch notes. Previously, at least half the gear you got in dungeons would be worthless as they'd have undesirable stats on them, but it's still a massive amount of work regardless.

Don't let all this dissuade you, as the game is enjoyable and well made, but if you're not willing to invest the time you may want to try something else.

[Maeglin_Dubh]

How does it play in the mid levels, though? Can a character be fully realized(-ish) around level 30 without needing to spend hours gear grinding?

[Kris Strife]

Somewhat. Yes, your equipment is important, but you don't have to spend ridiculous amounts of time getting all the best stuff to progress through the world. Certain dungeons and instances might need it, or you can just form up a party to run them, maybe get a high level guild mate.

Also, there apparently is going to be a special item that will let you have three classes at once at some point in the future. It already exists in the coding, they just haven't released it yet.

[Eldaran]

How does it play in the mid levels, though? Can a character be fully realized(-ish) around level 30 without needing to spend hours gear grinding?

The need to transmute your gear is mostly a concern at higher levels, if you plan to do any high level pvp or pve, except maybe some very slow solo pve, it's required to not get splattered.

At lower levels the game isn't really designed with you having done much transmuting, but it does help. What's very strange is that there's no level limit on it, so you could put the stats from level 55 raid dungeons on level 1 armor. This of course makes leveling an alt absurdly easy.

[MrPig]

I tried installing this for about 5 hours today, and each time the damn thing would hang at the update stage, at 64%.

[Zexion]

I tried installing this for about 5 hours today, and each time the damn thing would hang at the update stage, at 64%.
That's normal. Trust me.

[MrPig]

I must've downloaded the same patch 4 or 5 times (instead of, you know, using the one stored in my temp folder as per any download), is there a way around said hanging?

[Zexion]

I must've downloaded the same patch 4 or 5 times (instead of, you know, using the one stored in my temp folder as per any download), is there a way around said hanging?
I'm sure that's normal. Patches are downloaded in small packages.

[MrPig]

I'm sure that's normal. Patches are downloaded in small packages.

That's fine, but I'm downloading the same patch over and over again because it fails to install. Like I said, the process hangs at 64%. It doesn't freeze my PC, but it certainly isn't making any progress as I've left it alone for over an hour once.

Are there links for stand alone patches to avoid using the auto patcher?

[Zexion]

That's fine, but I'm downloading the same patch over and over again because it fails to install. Like I said, the process hangs at 64%. It doesn't freeze my PC, but it certainly isn't making any progress as I've left it alone for over an hour once.

Are there links for stand alone patches to avoid using the auto patcher?
And I said that that's normal, why won't you listen to me? :smallannoyed:

Give it time.

[MrPig]

And I said that that's normal, why won't you listen to me? :smallannoyed:

Give it time.

Having to redownload the same patch over and over only for it to hang and never install shouldn't be classified as normal for any game.

[Zexion]

Having to redownload the same patch over and over only for it to hang and never install shouldn't be classified as normal for any game.
As I've already explained, it's normal for the installation bar to hang. That doesn't mean that the installation has stopped. And you're not redownloading the same patch, you're downloading different sections of the same patch. That patch that you're "stuck" on, by the way, is 480 megabytes of data. Just wait.

[MrPig]

As I've already explained, it's normal for the installation bar to hang. That doesn't mean that the installation has stopped. And you're not redownloading the same patch, you're downloading different sections of the same patch. That patch that you're "stuck" on, by the way, is 480 megabytes of data. Just wait.

It is infact the same patch being redownloaded each time I restart the updater after force closing it. A 480mb patch shouldn't take 5 hours to download, or install especially when it took me 2 hours to download and install the 5.2gb client. Not to mention the damn thing is showing 0 CPU activity after it hangs and sits there for 40 minutes. Waste of my time and bandwith.

[Zexion]

It is infact the same patch being redownloaded each time I restart the updater after force closing it. A 480mb patch shouldn't take 5 hours to download, or install especially when it took me 2 hours to download and install the 5.2gb client. Not to mention the damn thing is showing 0 CPU activity after it hangs and sits there for 40 minutes. Waste of my time and bandwith.
Well, if you've forced closed it, is it any wonder that it's taking so long? :smallamused: