twincannon
New Member
Hey, figured I would post about my new player experience, last weekend was my first time playing the game and this weekend I really got a chance to dig into it.
I think my single favorite thing about the game is named mobs and unique item drops. I'm a big Everquest fan and I've never seen a newer game hit this feature so well before. Finding a named and figuring out what it drops is such a cool experience, as is rare loot like figuring out that Smuggler Lookouts drop that powerful staff. It's awesome to have these kind of player driven "stories" emerge about finding cool items and unique mobs, like it's hear-say. Telling new strikers to hunt thieves at night to try and get themselves a blade.
Grouping is hectic but a lot of fun. I think the range of things like heals could maybe use a boost (though it seems like they might be extended when using a crossbow? which would be hilarious - but I haven't played support yet to know). I played Brigand and love the CC stun. There hasn't seemed to be nearly enough defenders which makes me wonder if their subclasses seem weak, aside from Marshall they're not nearly as appealing looking to me at least. In fact I don't think I grouped with a single defender all weekend. Tons of supports. It is nice that a rag tag group of supports and strikers can make it work out regardless, but it seems like defenders could use some love.
Group XP seems lacking which I just posted about in another thread. 10% bonus for a full group seems very lackluster. Reminds me of a lot of other games which approach grouping in a very "safe" way as if players are out to exploit/game the system. I say reward socialization as much as possible, give players a reason to seek each other out and adventure together.
I did a bunch of duoing with a friend and it felt great aside from running into 3^ mobs very often. Sometimes we were able to take them out if they were green but in general the power scaling on these almost seems too consistent (i.e. a blue 3^ for a duo is just always a hard wall, it felt like - greens we could sometimes do). Compared to EQ where you had undercons/overcons and mobs would have vastly different stats and health pools, and you could take more risks it felt like. In Embers currently it feels mostly like "what color is it and how many chevrons" and not about the mob itself. This changed a bit when going into NHN and the mobs started getting abilities, but not too much.
Really enjoyed the gathering and crafting but I didn't like how everyone just made mules and traded amongst themselves in the shared bank. Seems like the current play is to have your "main" pick 2 gathering professions and just mule the items to a crafting alt. Maybe limit crafting by adventuring level somehow? Not sure, but currently it seems to promote non-interaction amongst players. I expected to see much more trading of cloth for leather and stuff like that.
I will say outfitter felt pretty lackluster, aside from some few items it wasn't worth using any of armor I could craft. The chainmail hauberk not withstanding (which is a must have for everyone due to its 0 weight, which seems strange), the leather armor had a much worse armor/weight ratio than metal. And then you'll find better armor in the wild and due to the way weight works you only need a few pieces of it. I ended up finding a single breastplate from the exile camp which takes up 25 of my currently 29 armor weight and gives drastically more armor than wearing a varied suit of armor. The system doesn't feel bad, it just feels... strange. I really like how you can have "layers" on. I loved leveling up and being able to make jewelry with stats once I had sufficient quality (though tier 2 at 70% quality is still worse than tier 1 which seems weird).
Overall really enjoying myself and can't wait to see what the future holds. Really excited for more content, we did some exploring and that big castle in Dryfoot looks super cool.
I think my single favorite thing about the game is named mobs and unique item drops. I'm a big Everquest fan and I've never seen a newer game hit this feature so well before. Finding a named and figuring out what it drops is such a cool experience, as is rare loot like figuring out that Smuggler Lookouts drop that powerful staff. It's awesome to have these kind of player driven "stories" emerge about finding cool items and unique mobs, like it's hear-say. Telling new strikers to hunt thieves at night to try and get themselves a blade.
Grouping is hectic but a lot of fun. I think the range of things like heals could maybe use a boost (though it seems like they might be extended when using a crossbow? which would be hilarious - but I haven't played support yet to know). I played Brigand and love the CC stun. There hasn't seemed to be nearly enough defenders which makes me wonder if their subclasses seem weak, aside from Marshall they're not nearly as appealing looking to me at least. In fact I don't think I grouped with a single defender all weekend. Tons of supports. It is nice that a rag tag group of supports and strikers can make it work out regardless, but it seems like defenders could use some love.
Group XP seems lacking which I just posted about in another thread. 10% bonus for a full group seems very lackluster. Reminds me of a lot of other games which approach grouping in a very "safe" way as if players are out to exploit/game the system. I say reward socialization as much as possible, give players a reason to seek each other out and adventure together.
I did a bunch of duoing with a friend and it felt great aside from running into 3^ mobs very often. Sometimes we were able to take them out if they were green but in general the power scaling on these almost seems too consistent (i.e. a blue 3^ for a duo is just always a hard wall, it felt like - greens we could sometimes do). Compared to EQ where you had undercons/overcons and mobs would have vastly different stats and health pools, and you could take more risks it felt like. In Embers currently it feels mostly like "what color is it and how many chevrons" and not about the mob itself. This changed a bit when going into NHN and the mobs started getting abilities, but not too much.
Really enjoyed the gathering and crafting but I didn't like how everyone just made mules and traded amongst themselves in the shared bank. Seems like the current play is to have your "main" pick 2 gathering professions and just mule the items to a crafting alt. Maybe limit crafting by adventuring level somehow? Not sure, but currently it seems to promote non-interaction amongst players. I expected to see much more trading of cloth for leather and stuff like that.
I will say outfitter felt pretty lackluster, aside from some few items it wasn't worth using any of armor I could craft. The chainmail hauberk not withstanding (which is a must have for everyone due to its 0 weight, which seems strange), the leather armor had a much worse armor/weight ratio than metal. And then you'll find better armor in the wild and due to the way weight works you only need a few pieces of it. I ended up finding a single breastplate from the exile camp which takes up 25 of my currently 29 armor weight and gives drastically more armor than wearing a varied suit of armor. The system doesn't feel bad, it just feels... strange. I really like how you can have "layers" on. I loved leveling up and being able to make jewelry with stats once I had sufficient quality (though tier 2 at 70% quality is still worse than tier 1 which seems weird).
Overall really enjoying myself and can't wait to see what the future holds. Really excited for more content, we did some exploring and that big castle in Dryfoot looks super cool.
