I'm a level 69 BC/Mentalist and I have most of the skill I actually use updated. For me that was a major accomplishment but at the same time something feels wrong with advancement.

But I can't make any gear or modify it; from what I can tell those professions are 99% money sinks until you get to the top level of creation. I don't have a cheese business so I can't really seem to make much money. But I do profit from people wanting to make cheese and that is really my only source of steady income. Something seems woefully wrong that the only way I can begin to afford anything is by making 3 extra characters and handing them bottles to sell milk (125 milks with bottle exchange=25k). And while I do make some decent money on the side via industry it isn't much advancement because I have to buy all the recipes to make the things they want (stools, crates, chairs.etc). The only reason I got to 50 alchemy was because I found two recipes that I could use to gain skill for profit by buying/farming mats and selling the profit to npcs. That being said alchemy is worthless because it doesn't make things people need to advance (just occasional combines for quest turn in).

If feels wrong that I have pretty much all level 50 gear or lower. The continual feel of the game is:

1. Get to new area, farm everything but the bosses
2. Find carries for the bosses until you have appropriate level drops [let me clarify this point a bit - have someone who is way beyond this dungeon solo the boss for you so that you can get a drop that is your level by beating a boss you would never beat until you were geared from those bosses.]
3. Farm boss repeatedly on rotation/cooldown (goto #1 )

The problem here is that there is an inordinate shift in cost of training beyond 50 with no real shift in gear payouts (own a cheese factory or gtfo). Translation: lvls 50-70 means time spent grinding mobs beneath your level. That too feels wrong. The level of wrong continues as there is no real way to get lvl 70 gear aside from getting carried in dungeons by people who have it or if you know a guy who can craft and you provide mats.

I realize this is a work in progress but I think the current flow of the game is way off in terms of progression. At the end of the day you must give players hope that they can advance when they play. Remove that element and they don't play your game in favor of something else. They also need to have some way of advancing alone which currently does not feel feasible.

Overall I completely disagree with the current design choice that skills w/o gear are nearly completely worthless & insanely expensive. I could probably live with very cheap skills that are worthless w/o gear. But I think the game would be smoother if gear didn't account for massive increases in skill advancement.

Realistically this translates to: oh that piece of gear doesn't have the 50% dmg modifier I need? Trash. I realize augment/transmutation can address this somewhat but I can't afford that process right now (gotta get him to soulmates basically).


I want to close by saying that I have enjoyed the game for what it is but I would love to see some economy reworks. As a whole it feels way too harsh needing to bribe everyone with a king's ransom so I can learn to tie my shoelaces.