As a new player who had a level 7 as my highest character prior to the patch, I’d like to put in my two cents about my leveling experience so far (I’ve since leveled a few characters to around level 20). Please note: I do not have much time to play, so I’ve only spent a couple hours on each of my characters trying out the changes.
Things I liked:
1. Weapon skill unlocks tied to slots rather than weapons. This was exciting for me as it felt less like I had to grind out each weapon, and more that I could freely test out new weapons as I learned my class. I’m one who often switches out and try new weapons, even prior to all the slots being unlocked, so it made it nice that once I unlocked say slot 4 for a weapon, I could unlock it on the rest of the weapons I had on me as well.
2. Dodge tutorial and other hints. It seemed very hand-holding at first, because I like figuring out games on my own, but some of the tips that popped up were very useful, even if not fully clear. It made me look up and learn about these aspects of gameplay properly.
3. Leveling up feels rewarding. I love being able to pick on the little diamond every time I level up. It feels more rewarding and it is very clear to me now when I level up, even if all it does is show me hints about something or another.
4. It feels much faster going between levels. I used to have to go out of my way to other hearts and areas in order to keep my level on par in the area of the map I want to explore. Now it seems to properly pace itself.
5. The compass pointing to new events, vistas, points of interest and skillpoints. It’s a bit buggy, but I really do enjoy this feature. It encourages me to wander in directions that will reward me for completing the content.
Things that have been changed:
1.1 Profession Skills, Weapon Swap, Downed State Skills and Utility Skill Unlocks feel too far out of reach. After having a character gain his weapon swap at level 7 (I think), all of a sudden having it locked because he’s only level 9 was off-putting. Utilities that I was looking forward to using seemed so far out of reach because I could only have 1 utility for the longest time. I wish these would get reset to a lower level again. As an elementalist, I’m also struggling with my attunements which I previously had now being locked. I WANT to be able to use all of my skills faster and have more time to practice with them, not be forced to learn them so far down the road after just mashing the same set of buttons all the time.
1.2 Levels for the Utilities, Weapon Swap and Profession Skills have now been lowered. I am playing right now and it definitely feels less grindy and restricted knowing that in a couple of levels I’ll have an elite. Plus I have access to a lot more utilities now. I am very pleased.
2.1 Skillpoints, Vistas, Points of Interest and “Diving Goggles” being locked to levels. I heard this was getting changed to being account bound, so I suppose this is okay, but I remember trying to interact with an NPC with the skillpoint above his head, only to find out that I couldn’t do anything with him. This just confused me even more. It’d be nice if it was introduced at an earlier stage so that I don’t run around wondering what these things are prior to them being fully explained. Maybe it can be done in an instanced tutorial instead?
Things that still concern me:
1. Beginning hearts are rather boring. Part of what drew me to this game was that “you don’t have to kill 10 of X and turn the drops in to an NPC”. I enjoy having choice and being able to use actions, such as delivering food to a cow. Now all I’m doing is interacting with things over and over again. While you still have some choice with your hearts, there’s no more variety in your actions. Hopefully this can be changed back.
2. Personal Story chapters locked behind levels. I really enjoyed being able to do the personal story whenever I wanted to, whether I was too low level or over, and liked that I could do it in small bunches. Now I don’t even know when I can see my next personal story chapter, and I’m stuck doing stuff to level so that I can see it. I’d much rather this not be the case. I also heard that some chapters have some plotholes now due to the rearrangement of some storylines?
Overall Impression
There are some good changes that have made my experience better, but the things I didn’t like took away from it enough that it became very difficult to enjoy playing, especially when I had just started the game at the end of August. I’m glad the level-gated unlocks for skills have been fixed up, as that was the most off-putting concern preventing me from playing.