I thought I would share my perspective for whatever it’s worth and then I’m moving on from MO2. I spent a little over 500 hours in game and have played MMO’s such as Warhammer, Shadowbane, ESO, EQ, and many other over the past 20 years and always achieved max level “end game content”.
In MO2 I rolled a human for flexibility in play style and tried mage/tamer, hybrid, and MA builds as well as crafting. I split time between Moh Ki and Meduli. I did almost every dungeon and boss, I spent time in Wardens and KoTo, and engaged in small and large scale PvP. In short, I feel I experienced most everything MO2 has to offer other than playing other build/races which mostly lends itself to foot fighters and that is not a play style I enjoy nor was it viable for me as a West Coast NA player given the latency issues.
In terms of graphics MO2 looks amazing, though it was a little disappointing to see so called towns or cities really resemble outposts. I generally enjoy larger maps but found the lack of content surprising and it’s probably the most empty and bland map I’ve ever played on. Map size and lack of real points of interest also is prohibitive of quality PvP in my opinion. I recall multiple times spending 3 hours plus in a PvP roaming group just trying to find fights. The vast majority of time you are unfortunately just playing a horse riding sim.
In terms of character development I was initially excited by what seemed to be a wide range of options but the reality is that character development to include crafting is extremely broad yet very shallow. There just is little depth in viable/quality options that are available just as it appears you have all these options with different weights but only several are any good. It was especially frustrating that many systems listed or showing in game simply are broken or unfinished, i.e domination, which makes MO2 even more challenging for a new player. Frankly I‘ve never played a game with so many things broken or unfinished, even as an alpha tester for various MMO’s over the years.
PVE in MO2 is the worst I’ve ever seen. The AI and mob pathing/leashing is atrocious and there are no skill checks or in depth strats needed for bosses. To make things worse, most bosses offer very little in terms of loot other than to a select group/niche of players. Every “raid” I went on was to support guild mates and experience the content; there was nothing of value to my character. Generally though I don’t care too much about PvE in a game I’m playing to experience PvP.
When it comes to PvP in MO2 there is no there there. No TC, no sieging, nothing that has any kind of effect or meaning other than a very temporary gratification over vanquishing your foe(s) that is vastly overshadowed by the amount of time you have to spend in game to even find a meaningful PvP encounter.
When you account for skill level differences between veteran players vs new, gear superiority, and severe latency issues depending on location, it’s very difficult for new players to be competitive, if not impossible
Recent self proclaimed decisions to gate/prevent certain builds and play styles from current and future content Is also discouraging to new players who don’t have the luxury of multiple accounts. Why should I invest time in my character and eagerly await new content to just find out my character doesn‘t fit SV‘s “vision”.
Last but not least, it became apparent to me that SV likely lacks the vision to make MO2 successful and the technical competence to implement that vision. I do feel some posters here are way too emotional and takes things to far in expressing that emotion, but when it comes to the underlying issue they are almost always correct.
Nonetheless I don’t regret my time in MO2 as it was an interesting and refreshing experience in some respects and the in-game community is great. KoTo especially was a blast to hang out with and Wardens was cool too until all the drama went down.
TLDR: cya
In MO2 I rolled a human for flexibility in play style and tried mage/tamer, hybrid, and MA builds as well as crafting. I split time between Moh Ki and Meduli. I did almost every dungeon and boss, I spent time in Wardens and KoTo, and engaged in small and large scale PvP. In short, I feel I experienced most everything MO2 has to offer other than playing other build/races which mostly lends itself to foot fighters and that is not a play style I enjoy nor was it viable for me as a West Coast NA player given the latency issues.
In terms of graphics MO2 looks amazing, though it was a little disappointing to see so called towns or cities really resemble outposts. I generally enjoy larger maps but found the lack of content surprising and it’s probably the most empty and bland map I’ve ever played on. Map size and lack of real points of interest also is prohibitive of quality PvP in my opinion. I recall multiple times spending 3 hours plus in a PvP roaming group just trying to find fights. The vast majority of time you are unfortunately just playing a horse riding sim.
In terms of character development I was initially excited by what seemed to be a wide range of options but the reality is that character development to include crafting is extremely broad yet very shallow. There just is little depth in viable/quality options that are available just as it appears you have all these options with different weights but only several are any good. It was especially frustrating that many systems listed or showing in game simply are broken or unfinished, i.e domination, which makes MO2 even more challenging for a new player. Frankly I‘ve never played a game with so many things broken or unfinished, even as an alpha tester for various MMO’s over the years.
PVE in MO2 is the worst I’ve ever seen. The AI and mob pathing/leashing is atrocious and there are no skill checks or in depth strats needed for bosses. To make things worse, most bosses offer very little in terms of loot other than to a select group/niche of players. Every “raid” I went on was to support guild mates and experience the content; there was nothing of value to my character. Generally though I don’t care too much about PvE in a game I’m playing to experience PvP.
When it comes to PvP in MO2 there is no there there. No TC, no sieging, nothing that has any kind of effect or meaning other than a very temporary gratification over vanquishing your foe(s) that is vastly overshadowed by the amount of time you have to spend in game to even find a meaningful PvP encounter.
When you account for skill level differences between veteran players vs new, gear superiority, and severe latency issues depending on location, it’s very difficult for new players to be competitive, if not impossible
Recent self proclaimed decisions to gate/prevent certain builds and play styles from current and future content Is also discouraging to new players who don’t have the luxury of multiple accounts. Why should I invest time in my character and eagerly await new content to just find out my character doesn‘t fit SV‘s “vision”.
Last but not least, it became apparent to me that SV likely lacks the vision to make MO2 successful and the technical competence to implement that vision. I do feel some posters here are way too emotional and takes things to far in expressing that emotion, but when it comes to the underlying issue they are almost always correct.
Nonetheless I don’t regret my time in MO2 as it was an interesting and refreshing experience in some respects and the in-game community is great. KoTo especially was a blast to hang out with and Wardens was cool too until all the drama went down.
TLDR: cya
