Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
The truth about PWI (pros and cons without raging).
silenos
Member Posts: 116
Hi. English is not my native language, sorry for my mistakes!
In this thread, I am showing the PROS and the CONS of PWI without raging. :P
I'm not an angry kid who overreacts everything and writes untrue things about PWI... I see too many posts like that and I'm sick of them.
I've been playing PWI for 2 years, I have several high lvl characters (even 100+), so I know the game well. I like it, but I have to admit it: PWI does have flaws (like any other games). Perfect World is not perfect, but still a pretty decent free MMO.
PROS
+ Decent graphics, detailed character cutomization, a huge world and movement freedom.
Even though the game is somewhat old now and most of the older towns look outdated, the graphics are pretty nice compared to other free MMOs. I have antialiasing enabled at my graphics card settings, it makes the game look even better. The character cusomization is very detailed, especially for older races, you can make your character look unique (including dyeable, permanent fashion). The game world is relatively big compared to other free MMOs, and you can even unlock new maps (Old Heaven's Tear, Heaven / Hell when you reach 89, etc). Flying is not that special anymore, but yeah, we can fly anywhere except for instances (flying time is NOT limited), we can swim and climb on buildings. We have several quests in the sky, under water and even quests that require jumping.
+ Plenty of quests, daily quests and instances. No grinding!
PWI is not your usual grindfest. There are hundreds of quests and plenty of dailies to help you lvl. These might get boring after a while, but much better than mindless grinding, right? Do these quests with friends, talk to others and have fun, I'm sure you will enjoy them. 
Bounty Hunter, Crazy Stone, World quests, Goshiki quest chain, Frostcovered City and many more are waiting for you to speed up your lvling!
+ Party oriented gameplay, lots of players and nice people.
PWI is one of the most populated free MMOs with lots of players and also one of the friendliest community. There are rude players (like in every games), but most of the time, people are really nice and helpful. If you approach others politely and kindly, they will be nice to you too. 
You can even enjoy random squads (parties) if you talk to others and try to make friends. The keyword in MMOs: friends. If you have friends, you will enjoy anything, not only in PWI, but in other games as well.
+ Relatively easy to get money.
I know many people don't agree, but it IS easy to get money in PWI. People say everything is overpriced and hard to get. Why? Because they always RUSH. They spend all their time lvling, reaching max lvl as fast as possible. Then they realize they don't have money because they never stopped their crazy lvling to farm instances or world bosses. If you take your time, do your quests instead of lvling with Hyper Exp Stones, go to TT (Twilight Temple) to farm, hunt down world bosses with your faction, you will always have enough money for decent gear for your lvl. After lvl 100, you can easily earn millions of coins just by doing BH100 and Nirvana daily. You can slowly save up enough coins for all your endgame stuff. If you have a good AoE character, you can also farm DQs, high lvl ones sell for 10k or more (each) thanks to the Dragon Point system! I can easily AoE grind 100 DQs in 40-50 minutes with my Cleric (poison mobs) and that means 1 million coins! People who say only cash shoppers win in this game are liars and they are lazy players who do not take their time to EARN coins! You can't earn money as fast as a cash shopper, true. But you can always save up. I don't understand people who want stuff RIGHT NOW. This is an MMO, you are supposed to get good stuff over time, not everything in one day. I'll be honest, I did spend money on this game but only 20 dollars back in 2009 when I was a newbie and only bought fashion (because I'm a girl). xD For PVE, TT / Legendary / OHT or even 3star gear is enough with average refines / gems and these are not expensive. PVP is another story...
CONS
- PVP.
I'll be honest, I never PVP, it does not entertain me (maybe because I'm a girl). But since it is a part of the game, and others might be interested in it, I have to mention it. There are these PVP lovers who are rich in real life and they spend thousands of dollars on pixels just to kill other players... No offence, but this is ridiculously stupid. But yeah, there are players like that. Cash shop DOES imbalance PVP. You DO need better gear than the average PVE stuff to compete in PVP. Nothing to be surprised about, PVP works like this in every free MMOs, sadly. This does not mean the game is 'pay to win' because PVP is a very small part of the game, it's highly optional (PVE server), and you basically get nothing for PVPing. You mainly do PVE, that's how you lvl afterall, and PVE is easy with average gear.
- Not for soloers.
This is a positive thing for me, because I LOVE partying and talking to people. But others might not like this. PWI is not for lonely soloers! You can easily do your normal quests alone, but you will need help for cultivation bosses / instances! Just join a faction, most of them are willing to help.
- Too much exp, too fast lvling.
If you're rich, you can easily reach lvl 100 with only Oracles and Hyper Exp Stones in just a few weeks! I really don't like this. Too fast lvling makes too many high lvl people who can't even play their own class. If you don't use any lvling items, you can get to 100 in 5-6 months, if you play at least a few hours every day (this is optimal).
- Bugs / glitches.
We do have bugs and glitches and developers don't really want to fix them. This is the game's biggest flaw, in my opinion.
- 5aps.
The game's other biggest flaw, the balance issues what 5aps caused. 5aps aka 5 attacks per second is available for around 700 million coins (total price of the aps gears needed), it is definitely a cash shopper thing. 5aps is mainly for melee classes but I've seen 5aps Archers and Venos as well. It's totally ruining the game, making magic classes not needed. What's a strong magic spell compared to FIVE melee attacks EVERY second??? Nothing! Endgame is screwed up because of 5aps and I really want them to remove it... Maybe one day... x.x
OTHERS
~ Territory Wars.
I didn't mention this at PVP, TW is kind of a 'neutral' thing for me. Factions fight for a part of the map. If the place is not taken by a faction, you have to fight against mobs (that's what I did once). If the place is taken, you have to defend it against an other faction that wants to take it from you. I've never tried it, others say it's fun.
~ Flying and mounts.
Other people find these things too expensive, but this depends on the flyer / mount you get. You can get a decent, maxed mount or flyer for a relatively cheap price. Same or similar speed RARE ones are way too overpriced. But why would you pay more for the same speed just because it looks fancier? Makes no sense to me.
~ Refining.
Refining IS hard in PWI, the success rates are really low, especially at higher lvls. You shouldn't refine until lvl 70 or 80, it's a waste of money (unless you're rich). After 90 and 100, your best bet is the Dragon Orb. Dragon Orbs grant 100% success and in the long run, it's cheaper than wasting Mirages. For PVE, +4 or +5 is more than enough, really. It's relatively cheap, you can slowly save up the money you need for DOrbs. For PVP, you better get +8 or better stuff (max is +12).
~ Lag.
Other people often complain about lag, but I can't really say anything about it, because I rarely feel lag. Note that I have a very good computer and super fast internet.
- - -
If you want to post your opinion about the game or about my review (if I can call it review?), please do it politely. I know many people do not know about the forum etiquette, but please... try to behave.
I want to reborn as a Sylvari.
Comments
i really like pwi as well while realising it has flaws as any game (mostly free to play).... but i disagree with the "no grinding part"... why? simple.... as someone said in other thread..... the game takes all the grinding and separate it into quests to make it look like your doing something with your ingame life instead of straight forward grind...... having 100+ quests sending you to kill many monsters is just a little fashioned way to start a grindfest killing monsters (with NPC that rewards you afterward which is better of course) but still grinding mobs like crazy....
i do like most PWE games but i do realize that all of them have the same mob grindfest through the same quest system.... PWE should try a different path of quest progression with each of their games, or at least the most popular ones (PWI, JD, FW, HOTK) ... thats a little lazy from their part, considering they make a lot of money with their cash shop (even though its expensive, lots of players spend like crazy in there)
True, but I meant grinding as 'go out and kill 436546352 mobs to get 5% exp'. XD Games like that make me crazy! If you 'grind' mobs for a quest, you know that you will get a nice exp reward for it.
And people usually stop doing quests after lvl 60-70, they give low exp after that. Most of the people only do gamma / PQ / BH / FCC after mid lvls. x)
I want to reborn as a Sylvari.
I mostly agree with you but there are a few things I either didn't agree with or that you didn't mention:
I'm surprised that you put Frostcovered City in the pros. While it is funner to run instances than to grind, FC is pretty broken. People with high leveled characters don't even play their new chars, they just do alt fcs until 85 then start playing at 85. And then they just do fc till 100 or whatever level they stop caring about level at. As long as you're able to do fc, there's no point in doing anything else (in terms of exp)
I agree with you about pvp being unbalanced, especially because of 5 APS / sins, but it doesn't make sense listing how it's easy to make money yet how money makes pvp unfair.
I think that it's worth mentioning that you can legally buy gold from other players via the auctioneer. It's perhaps my favorite thing about PW -- the game may be horribly reliant on the cash shop (like most f2p games are), but the fact that you can legally buy gold using ingame money makes that point a lot less relevant. The rates aren't bad and the tax is small. It's inspiring knowing that the first person to reach the level cap didn't spend a cent on the game.
Along the same lines, teles which are used for world chat are so insanely cheap that even noobs can afford them. This can be good and bad. It means that noobs have a way to ask for help for anything at a low price. There's also a lot of wc spam, though. I personally don't mind the spam; it's mostly jokes and little to no flaming.
Event-wise,they'll periodically (every 2 or 3 months?) announce that if they get so many fans on facebook they'll have 2x exp/spirit/drops for 2 weeks straight. We almost always reach the goal. Besides this though there is a lack of events. There are some repeated events that the system will announce every so often, but I don't know much about these because I have no incentive to attend them. From what I uderstand they're all competitive so low levels don't stand a chance.
You either love or hate the music. The music is Chinese and most songs sound quite peaceful, which some people say bores them to sleep. I personally like the music; it's different than in other mmos.
Customer service is amazing for a f2p game. I had a problem launching the game after the genesis patch, logged a ticket, and got a response within 3 hours. It was the first time I'd ever gotten a human response from a logged ticket in a f2p game. Mods are quite active in the forums too.
I also agree with Rojo, the quests are almost all grindy. On the other hand, at 40+ quests become less important when you can bh for exp. The noob levels are, ironically, the grindiest levels.
All in all though I think that PW is one of the best f2p games out there. It's mostly instance based and there are a lot of things to do at endgame. It has a good community and the cash shop isn't much of a problem, which is usually what ruins f2p games.
Sadly, people 'abuse' FCC nowadays. I don't understand why, rushing to max lvl is not fun at all. Every time I start a new character, I enjoy quests and BHs, and only start FCC around 80, Hyper after 90. People under lvl 80 shouldn't be able to enter FCC.
I think it is easy to get money for PVE, because PVE can be fun with average gear, unlike PVP. Most 100+ PVPers are heavy cash shoppers. People can still save up for PVP gear ingame, but it takes forever. That's what I meant, sorry if it sounds weird. xD
I want to reborn as a Sylvari.
Hmm..not really understand~ my english is too poor~ haha
anyway dont care~
lol that person that you think reached the lvl cap first on the game without spending a cent is full of it its an alternate account they have more than one this allows them to
1. multibox/multiclient and run multiple chars at once on the game allowing them to solo certain instances that require having a squad just to open certain modes.
2. charge zen or gold on a seperate account and then they can give or send items and coins to the other account via in game mail. The person Kitamura the assassin that supposedly reached the lvl cap without spending any money whatsover is a liar I play on the server both of his main accounts are on. His first main account before assassins ever came out is a venomancer named FieryDevil and is known to be a huge cash shopper already well before assassins came out over a year ago. Just cause the developers Don't know it doesn't mean they 500 ppl on the server that know who he is doesnt know it.
PWI is free to play for one class only: Venomancer, once it gets a Hercules pet.
My main is a lvl 99 and 33% exp venomancer that hasnt done any abusive FCC's. Took me 2 years to grow it to that lvl, with casual playing.
Took me 4 days to raise an archer from lvl 1 to 63 by abusing FCC. Really cut down my apetite in playing the game.
The 2 new classes that came out are heavily dependant on cash shop items, if you try to play them without, they feel broken and stressing. The seeker needs plin gear and the mystic is simply dependant on MP charms. A lvl 90+ mystic burns Burns an MP charm in roughly 30 hours of gameplay. An MP charm costs 1,7-2,0 million coins, and as a free player you can barely manage to get that kind of money at that lvl, by using multiple ways of making money. Hence, cash shop items are a must.
Venomancer remains the only real free class in the game: only requires a decent weapon and can use a multitude of pets. It is possible to get hercules by grinding, but it takes a long time. Even without hercules, you can use *Golem* and be a decent veno.
However, the player population has turned into: 60% cash-shop users 40% free players. Cash-shoppers toy with the free players.
e5200 oc@ 3,7GHz - plays any game. If you need a quad core, you must be a solitaire junkie.
PWI was nice, and the recent update almost made me to jump back into it. However, it does suffer many typical F2P game issues. I loved venomancer but her good pets are pain to get.
I disagree with you on the character detail part, I think the newer generation (the memaid and nature ppl, lol forgot their names) characters have much better graphic details. EX. the hair glows more naturally and hair styles are more fahsionable. Drawback is that you cant have a intense customization with those new races.
Anyways, i did get bored with the grind kill XXX of monsters to finish this, plus i didnt have any friends/join any guilds. Owell...
Yup, the new races have better hairstyles. Old hairstyles look plastic. But we have wigs (hair fash). x) I like old races' customization better because we can change eyebrow color, lip color, makeup, etc.
I think most magic classes + Archers are fairly cheap in PWI, they don't have to get 5aps. ;o They just need decent gear and a good weapon. It is true, Veno is the cheapest, because they need no potions (especially if they go full mag) and crappy gear is enough because they have a bodyguard (pet). A good Veno doesn't need Herc either. They can still debuff bosses for faster kills. Also, Venos' support skills are always loved (giving chi and bramble). Hercs are kinda useless in squads now, because they can't keep aggro from Sins anyways... Still fun for soloing.
I want to reborn as a Sylvari.
PROS
Bounty Hunter, Crazy Stone, World quests, Goshiki quest chain, Frostcovered City and many more are waiting for you to speed up your lvling!
You can even enjoy random squads (parties) if you talk to others and try to make friends. The keyword in MMOs: friends. If you have friends, you will enjoy anything, not only in PWI, but in other games as well.
+ Decent graphics, detailed character cutomization, a huge world and movement freedom.
Even though the game is somewhat old now and most of the older towns look outdated, the graphics are pretty nice compared to other free MMOs. I have antialiasing enabled at my graphics card settings, it makes the game look even better. The character cusomization is very detailed, especially for older races, you can make your character look unique (including dyeable, permanent fashion). The game world is relatively big compared to other free MMOs, and you can even unlock new maps (Old Heaven's Tear, Heaven / Hell when you reach 89, etc). Flying is not that special anymore, but yeah, we can fly anywhere except for instances (flying time is NOT limited), we can swim and climb on buildings. We have several quests in the sky, under water and even quests that require jumping.
+ Plenty of quests, daily quests and instances. No grinding!
PWI is not your usual grindfest. There are hundreds of quests and plenty of dailies to help you lvl. These might get boring after a while, but much better than mindless grinding, right? Do these quests with friends, talk to others and have fun, I'm sure you will enjoy them.
+ Party oriented gameplay, lots of players and nice people.
PWI is one of the most populated free MMOs with lots of players and also one of the friendliest community. There are rude players (like in every games), but most of the time, people are really nice and helpful. If you approach others politely and kindly, they will be nice to you too.
With all of the above I have say 'hell yeah!' to it,
+ Relatively easy to get money.
I know many people don't agree, but it IS easy to get money in PWI. People say everything is overpriced and hard to get. Why? Because they always RUSH. They spend all their time lvling, reaching max lvl as fast as possible. Then they realize they don't have money because they never stopped their crazy lvling to farm instances or world bosses. If you take your time, do your quests instead of lvling with Hyper Exp Stones, go to TT (Twilight Temple) to farm, hunt down world bosses with your faction, you will always have enough money for decent gear for your lvl. After lvl 100, you can easily earn millions of coins just by doing BH100 and Nirvana daily. You can slowly save up enough coins for all your endgame stuff. If you have a good AoE character, you can also farm DQs, high lvl ones sell for 10k or more (each) thanks to the Dragon Point system! I can easily AoE grind 100 DQs in 40-50 minutes with my Cleric (poison mobs) and that means 1 million coins! People who say only cash shoppers win in this game are liars and they are lazy players who do not take their time to EARN coins! You can't earn money as fast as a cash shopper, true. But you can always save up. I don't understand people who want stuff RIGHT NOW. This is an MMO, you are supposed to get good stuff over time, not everything in one day. I'll be honest, I did spend money on this game but only 20 dollars back in 2009 when I was a newbie and only bought fashion (because I'm a girl). xD For PVE, TT / Legendary / OHT or even 3star gear is enough with average refines / gems and these are not expensive. PVP is another story...
Well, I wouldn't know anything about being easy money with lv100, cause I've never gotten to that lv yet. I've mostly earned mine money off selling gear drops, TT mats, or gold. Though the formor I do rarely.
CONS
- PVP.
I'll be honest, I never PVP, it does not entertain me (maybe because I'm a girl). But since it is a part of the game, and others might be interested in it, I have to mention it. There are these PVP lovers who are rich in real life and they spend thousands of dollars on pixels just to kill other players... No offence, but this is ridiculously stupid. But yeah, there are players like that. Cash shop DOES imbalance PVP. You DO need better gear than the average PVE stuff to compete in PVP. Nothing to be surprised about, PVP works like this in every free MMOs, sadly. This does not mean the game is 'pay to win' because PVP is a very small part of the game, it's highly optional (PVE server), and you basically get nothing for PVPing. You mainly do PVE, that's how you lvl afterall, and PVE is easy with average gear.
I don't care much for PVP myself. I don't earn anything from it, so why bother? I would only lose by having to repair shattered gear which costs me mirages that could be put to much better uses.
- Not for soloers.
This is a positive thing for me, because I LOVE partying and talking to people. But others might not like this. PWI is not for lonely soloers! You can easily do your normal quests alone, but you will need help for cultivation bosses / instances! Just join a faction, most of them are willing to help.
- Too much exp, too fast lvling.
If you're rich, you can easily reach lvl 100 with only Oracles and Hyper Exp Stones in just a few weeks! I really don't like this. Too fast lvling makes too many high lvl people who can't even play their own class. If you don't use any lvling items, you can get to 100 in 5-6 months, if you play at least a few hours every day (this is optimal).
- Bugs / glitches.
We do have bugs and glitches and developers don't really want to fix them. This is the game's biggest flaw, in my opinion.
Again....I'll have to agree with all of the above. >.>
- 5aps.
The game's other biggest flaw, the balance issues what 5aps caused. 5aps aka 5 attacks per second is available for around 700 million coins (total price of the aps gears needed), it is definitely a cash shopper thing. 5aps is mainly for melee classes but I've seen 5aps Archers and Venos as well. It's totally ruining the game, making magic classes not needed. What's a strong magic spell compared to FIVE melee attacks EVERY second??? Nothing! Endgame is screwed up because of 5aps and I really want them to remove it... Maybe one day... x.x
The 5 aps thing is a definate over rule. Many of my high lved friends cannot get into decent 100+ squads because of this, being magic users. The only magic class that even gets into a squad without a problem is a cleric. Everyone looks for aps these days, in my option of it, 'why go so fast?'. Takes all the fun out it if you ask me.
OTHERS
~ Territory Wars.
I didn't mention this at PVP, TW is kind of a 'neutral' thing for me. Factions fight for a part of the map. If the place is not taken by a faction, you have to fight against mobs (that's what I did once). If the place is taken, you have to defend it against an other faction that wants to take it from you. I've never tried it, others say it's fun.
I've never tried TW, though I hope to someday.
~ Flying and mounts.
Other people find these things too expensive, but this depends on the flyer / mount you get. You can get a decent, maxed mount or flyer for a relatively cheap price. Same or similar speed RARE ones are way too overpriced. But why would you pay more for the same speed just because it looks fancier? Makes no sense to me.
Weeeelllllll..............I'll have to put out a disagreement on this one. Think of maybe that your a hard-core gamer like me, you want something like a kid in a candy store. The only real thing I ever spent money on was a pair of Silk Perfumes. I LOVE my wings, and still have them after 5 months. ^^
Side note: I got them dirt cheap. :P
~ Refining.
Refining IS hard in PWI, the success rates are really low, especially at higher lvls. You shouldn't refine until lvl 70 or 80, it's a waste of money (unless you're rich). After 90 and 100, your best bet is the Dragon Orb. Dragon Orbs grant 100% success and in the long run, it's cheaper than wasting Mirages. For PVE, +4 or +5 is more than enough, really. It's relatively cheap, you can slowly save up the money you need for DOrbs. For PVP, you better get +8 or better stuff (max is +12).
As much as refining helps, it sucks ass without the orbs. In any good gear I've gotten, I'll only ever go as far as making something +2 because orbs to me they are just a money waste when they aren't used on final gears. As of right now I've only ever +5 something, and those were my Hitman Legends.
~ Lag.
Other people often complain about lag, but I can't really say anything about it, because I rarely feel lag. Note that I have a very good computer and super fast internet.
*Ahem* another peice of advice for people to aviod lag? Do virus and spyware checks weekly. Aannndddd DON"T HAVE CRAP AND FILES OF JUNK ON YOUR PC!
Thanks to this I am lag free most of the time. ^^
Side notes: I do cash shop sometimes, yes. But its only when stuff is on sale and its mostly for tokens so as to get crab meats and a few herbs. Though they are rarely used anyway because I hardly use skills these days and I get back most of my HP with Bloodpaint.
And I'm disargeeing with you on the the cash shop is geared more for the newer classes silenos. I have gotten along fine on my assassin without use of the cash shop for anything related to gears, stats, boosting whatever you wanna call it, ect.
Edit: Corrected spelling.
Currently active on: Landmark and Aion. Casual gamer on: GW2, Tera, and EQ2. Retired: PWI, Fiesta, and DCUO. Hyped for: EQN, BD, SC, FFXV, and No Man's Sky.
Pretty much all the PWE games favour cash shoppers a LOT. I have spent lots of $$$$ on PWI but not all of my buddies have the means to do so. While I can have epic gear and pwn the majority of players by dishing out greens, my buddies remain at a heavy disadvantage - mostly in PVP. Infact, sometimes I felt the cash-shop-favouring was so bad, I was ready to help them out with ZEN (the cash currency in PWI) myself.
What bothered me the most was the company's greedy response/strategy to everything. I remember once there was this glitchy bird pet in the cash shop, with an imba skill, for a class named Venomancer. They didn't fix the skill which had caused a huge uproar (because it's skill effects & damage were devastating - killing even the most powerful players within seconds), instead they released a SECOND, stronger pet with the same skill, plus more! Now, these pets cost nearly $150 (probably more) to obtain from the cash shop. Since they weren't fixing it, all the cash shoppers rolled new Venomancers, bought the pet and were out PVPing 24/7. The company made a huge sale even though many players quit the game or switched to a PVE server. They sorted this out eventually around the time they released the Genie expansion thing, I believe.
Despite a lot of people complaining about the cash shop issues, the game was quite addicting for me because it had a lot of content, a lot of people around and a lot of my buddieswere on it (and also because I had great gear because I am a cash shopper =p).
I made the same mistake on another one of their games - Jade Dynasty. I didn't give thought to how much I had spent on this shit until recently.
Now I stay the hell away from PWE.
+ Decent graphics, detailed character cutomization, a huge world and movement freedom.
Agreed 100% - there is no other game where you can style your toon with so many details
+ Plenty of quests, daily quests and instances. No grinding!
This can make other games boring if you get used to autopathing, high exp instances etc
+ Party oriented gameplay, lots of players and nice people.
Yes to this but NO in endgame. If you want to farm in latest cave (Nirvana) you only need assassins and bms. You dont even need a cleric or tank. If you are a cleric, bm or barbarian you will have a lot of ''friends after lvl 80'' but most messages you will get will be: >FC?< No hi or how are you...
+ Relatively easy to get money.
If you know how to farm, money shouldnt be a problem. But if you want to compete in end game you have to cash shop or spend 90% of your life farming. If you want to be a factor in pvp at late game and you dont play games all day, you can forgeit it without spending lots of money.
- PVP.
There is no decent pvp in this game. And it is only my personal opinion but game system like in PWI is terrible for pvp. TW happens too less and if you have bad luck in the time when you sleep. This is pretty only pvp there -.- Of course you can also free pk on pvp servers but #1 most people make fishs (assassins and psychics) because they are overpowered in pvp and in end game all other classes have no chance against them. Assassin or psychic without skills can kill everybody. You need knowledge for other classes if you want to be good. Fishs dont need it...
- Not for soloers.
You have to be a little social if you want to learn new skills lol
- Too much exp, too fast lvling.
If you're rich, you can easily reach lvl 100 with only Oracles and Hyper Exp Stones in just a few weeks! I really don't like this. Too fast lvling makes too many high lvl people who can't even play their own class. If you don't use any lvling items, you can get to 100 in 5-6 months, if you play at least a few hours every day (this is optimal).
After new expansion there was somebody who reached level 100 with new class in TWO days. If you cash shop you have nothing to master in this game. You can become high level noob very easy.
- Bugs / glitches.
100% agreed
- 5aps.
This killed all mage classes and pretty every class also since all want to have high aps. 5aps killed pve and tideborn killed pvp.
~ Flying and mounts.
They are costly but fun. You can also swim in this game too (I really like this part).
~ Refining.
You can get +3 items without help. Then pay $ or farm to get dragon orbs to make higher refine. +12 is max...
~ Lag.
I had problems with lags too but leatrix latency fix solved this problem.
Here are few my personal points:
PWE sells in cash shop packs which in my opinion totally ruined economy. In game moneys worth is really low and it means for newbies that dont cash shop from start that they will have a really hard time. PWI is a good game compared to other free to play games but it is only good for people who focus on pve. You are totally wrong in this game if you want a pvp game. I played PWI almost 2 years with few months break and pvp there is terrible. Not long time ago they just sold rank badges for $. (You need rank for best gear in game).
PWI is a fantasy game. Few weeks ago they started to sell packs where you can win a motorcycle... Ok, I should be complaining about fashion in this view too but I liked fashion in PWI. #1 Fashion is permanent #2 Fashion is tradeable<- big + for PWI. - about fashion is that most female fashion make look girls look like sluts...
Now comes what I hate in PWI and made me quit it:
I used to play this game because I like to play with others. Doing quests and other stuff together. PWI today? Hyper exp stones and oracles till high level, buy rank, farm to refine if you dont buy it too. People became really greedy. There was no more feeling that you can rely on somebody (of course you can find good people too but its rare...).
If you dont want to read my whole text (even if it is not long hehe) then here:
PWI became a kiddy orientated game with imbalanced classes and pvp in this game is a joke. If you can spend lot of money you can become strong and powerfull in few days. Frostcovered City was turned into apocalitpycal exp instance where you get millions of exp in short time. There are many more things to do in PWI but since everybody does only FC none does different things and it results a lot of high level noobs. I dont like calling other noobs but its true.
100% agreed! It's a great game IMO, but has many flaws.
They give you too much to do right-off-the-bat, and traveling (up until lvl 30) is really annoying as you are on foot most of the time. Leveling is easy if you don't mind running place to place without much direction.
Overall, it's fun and easily playable, just not worth the cash shot items.
Thanks for the review but one question is the playerbase high? Is the towns flowing with players?
Yeah, the game is very populated. Also, since the game does not log you out after a specific amount of time, you have a lot of AFKers.
I'm too lazy to edit the first post, but I would add the current power leveling craze to the cons... Seriously, in the past years, this is the first thing that makes me really dislike PWI.
People started plvling ever since the Genesis expansion came out. Sure, it always existed but it's been crazy lately. High lvl people clean FCC and leave the heads, sell squad spots for money for low lvl people so they can lvl fast... I recently started a Mystic alt and I can't find squads for BHs (or it takes forever), because most people plvl. The ones who are trying to lvl normally can't find squads for BH, PQ, PV (the new instance), etc. Not to mention, thanks to plvling, I meet more and more fail people who are lvl 100+ but they know NOTHING about their class.
Leveling speed is already too fast in this game, even if you only do daily quests. I don't get why people need plvling in PWI. I understand it if someone buys Hyper Exp Stones for lvl80+ FCC because lvling is getting slower and slower each lvl... But I can't understand plvling, there is NO NEED to plvl in this game. Also, it's unfair that some people worked hard (for months) for their lvls, then these greedy plvlers reach the same lvl in a week.
The solution is easy: FCC should be available for lvl80+ players only. Public Quest mobs give out lotsa exp, another good place for plvling. Those mobs should not give any exp, and the exp rewards for DOING PQ should be increased. PWE could fix this but they just don't care. : /
I want to reborn as a Sylvari.
PWI's biggest downfall is it never managed the F2P economy well. The AH and gold trading give the illusion of ability to farm-and-trade for anything in the cash shop but it's only enough to cover the expenses of lower levels. At this point, after so many years on the market, the economy and gameplay has become fatally unbalanced between the Haves and the Have Nots (CSers vs. nonCSers).
End game gear must now be purchased through the CS and costs thousands of dollars in real money. I'm not kidding about this. I believe the full set of R9 gear with shards is somewhere around $6,000 USD.
While technically possible to farm coins to get it, in reality, there aren't enough hours in the day to actually accomplish this in a reasonable time frame (over several months).
Fyi - End game can literally be reached in just a few days with well known glitched instances.
Another Fyi - If you are willing to pay thousands to flex your ePeen, this game is your dream date.
The original release of the game was pretty good. Unfortunately, every expansion or new content added since the introduction of anniversary packs has focused soley on cash grab for the developers. Any content or events not dominated by CS players have either been removed or been rendered obsolete; as in - you will be hard pressed to find a squad to run dungeons to get gear/skills/etc to advance gameplay. You will have to buy them off CS players who solo the instances. It's an ugly cycle.
Having said all this, I'm looking for recommendations on similar games, minus the F2P model. I'm open to box cost or minimal sub fees if the game is balanced and interesting. I also actually *like* quest grinding. It's my time to chill out after a hectic day.
I played PWI myself for about a year. I enjoyed the game very much. I never had to spend money in the cash shop on refining materials. I myself had only spent about 50 bucks....on fashion and a really nice pair of wings (Seraphic Mist).
Some of the cons I would like to add since I left before the 5aps thing that I am hearing about...
Was that the Archer class got no love at all whatsoever. I was an archer. I loved my archer dearly. But it was damn hard to get into parties for instances and FBs because of it. Once I hit level 60 I was able to tank with that awesome barrage of arrows skill. But even in parties I still wasn't allowed to tank. One barb even died and I finished the boss without him (for being a total ass to me) and when he came back and noticed I killed the boss, he replied " you only got lucky killing him without me". PvP was a rare thing to see on my Sanctuary server, but we liked to hang out in cities other than laggy Archosaur and duel. My archer dominated, but none acknowledged that archers are a good class.
Another thing that bugged me was that you could never see the level of the player you clicked on. This made going into pvp a hands tied behind your back and blindfolded type of thing. I was often targeted for duels because I was weaker. When I asked them what level they were they refused to respond. Often they had view gears blocked. How is this fight supposed to be fair if you wont at least tell me what level you are?
My favorite thing in the game was the high customization of my character. I am in fact a clothes who** lol. My archer was the sexiest thing walking around....or at least I would like to think she was xD We often had fashion parades through Archosaur, mounts parades, and even flight gear parades at heaven's tear. I often complain on other games I have tried that you cannot customize your character. Even perfect worlds entertainments other gaming protege Battle of the Immortals sports the same generic blonde headed girl with the avatar with dark hair that doesn't even remotely match. I acknowledge I did leave the game before I could even hit level 70. I checked back in from time to time on my friends...who now no longer seem to be there. Of course my experiences in this game range from the old PWI to shortly after the rising tide update...which i found to be disappointingly impressive lol.
Thanks for the post, was looking for something to play since I have not really played much since I retired from WOW before Cataclysm, and since WOD is gonna be a few years I guess I need to blow steam somewhere. Also some of your negatives are positives to me, I absoluetely love gank wars being in them, victimized by them and doing them. The talent trees look .. meh decent but better than the garbage wow is using now. The only thing the game really doesn't have is inhuman races.
PWI does have inhuman races....or races that aren't human xD
Barbarians and Venos are the farthest thing from human lol
I also forgot to mention I did get to participate in a territory war in my server against Nefarius. We got ganked...really bad...but it was fun.
The old PWI was fun -- before all the CSing of end-of-game gear. before all the 5 aps nonsense, before all the power leveling. Only remnants of the old PWI are left, which is why the game is no fun anymore, and broken beyond repair. Sometimes when i think about the game it once was, i get sad. It WAS so much fun.
If you wanna play PWI to make a beautifully customized character, give it a try. It is completely unparalleled in any other game. But don't expect to have squads for your daily cave runs, or much else, until around level 60-70. Then ur gonna have to pull out your cash to continue (including all that beautiful fashion he's talking about). Cuz you won't really be able to farm any good gear without your wallet. Fifty bucks is about right for a level 70 character. $5000 is about right to get a middle-of-the-road character at level 100.
You only have to PK a couple times to realize you're gonna need money -- lots of it.
Oh yeah -- and act like an ass and you'll fit right in.
I just wanted to compliment the OP on a very nicely written personal overview. I am looking for a new game and I always rule out posts when people are completely biased for or against a game... I have yet to experience a game where everything was perfect or everything was bad. You have encouraged me to revisit my attempts to install this game and try it out (having major issues with PMB not being able to run). Also, a thank you to others who have chimed in with their thoughts and opinions without raging or fanboy-ing.
I really want to get a look at this game firsthand!
If anyone out there is looking for a good balanced version of PWi before it made all the new races. Then search Triallion PW on google. I've heard many people talk about how the new classes are over powered and render the old classes practically useless. That is the reason I will never like the new classes. also I think 5aps is way too much for any class, a maximum of 3.33 is more than enough.