My first official post on the 'Gaf. Glad to be here.
It's a copy of a post I made elsewhere but is sums up my feelings on AoC pretty well.
Got my Ranger in the low 20's running around Wildlands and Conall's Valley (sp) and my Bear Shaman up to 19 ready to do the last part of his destiny quest. Here are some random thoughts that have come to me while playing.
1)The Tortage experience in and of itself is ok. Even good at times. But it in no way compares to the scale and beauty of the zones I have seen since I left. Old Tarantia, Wildlands, Conall's Valley, Conarch Village are all visually and aurally stunning. Seriously, someone should get a medal for graphic and sound design.
2)The leveling experience up to 20 for both of my characters has been night and day different. My Bear Shaman has been rather like beating my head against the wall at times and I've nearly given up on him a couple of times, especially during the single player destiny quests I would die 4 or more times on certain steps. It improved somewhat at level 15 when I got a melee knockback/down that hits everyone you are facing and some new combos but still, it's been a bit of struggle. I keep hearing its going to get better so I will keep plugging away but as of right now he's only going to come out to play when I can group with one of my RL friends.
The Ranger, on the other hand, has been a breeze. Lots of damage right from the beginning (I suspect AoC uses damage tables like EQ1 did and rogue archetypes are always going to do the most dps, even with equal stats and weapons) and 2 types of crowd control available by level 10. Last night in Wildlands I was taking on up to 3 mobs that were 3 levels over me without breaking much of a sweat. And I dont even have stances yet, which will up my bow dmg by 30%.
3)Unintuitive. Alot of the game is just downright unintuitive. The chat interface of course. The instance system. Emoting. Adding friends and group members. Hidden abilities (seriously, how was I supposed to know that any normal bow shot from stealth would "mez" my target for 10 seconds??) and new combos and abilities that dont automatically show up on a hotbar when you get them. (True Story: I had a lvl 19 bear shaman ask my bear shaman yesterday when he would get new spells as the only thing he had was renewal or whatever that first heal proc you get is. The poor sap had never opened his combos and abilities tab and noticed the whole line of new spells and buffs!) Yikes.
4)I'm shocked the game is this good. Yes, I know the game still has alot of bugs and issues and balance problems. Even so, I wasnt expecting this level of quality. AoC is genuinely fun, looks and sounds great and presents a world that I want to spend alot of time in. I would even go (at the risk of sounding like a fanboy) so far as to say it's enthralling. I was beginning to think that no one outside of Blizzard could create a beautiful and engaging MMO space. In this case, I am very happy to be wrong.