General Overall Feedback On Wynncraft And Its Current State

“Huh? Novalescent making a review post of Wynncraft? Oh boy, better get my popcorn.”

Ya, I guess it may be odd to some of you that I’m writing this. Over the past month since I posted the Improved Guilds suggestion, I’ve been silently reminiscing over the time I’ve spent creating everything I have for Wynncraft and its community. It’s almost been a year since my first major suggestion, Improved Spell Effects. Time surely does fly huh?

Over this past year, I’ve learned more about Wynncraft than I ever wished to know. I’ve met so many people from many walks of life and mind, and the amount of work required to have accurately recreated the many systems of Wynncraft has revealed to me many underlying mechanics and interesting truths.
However, I never really got to act on all of this new information by myself. I’ve always used it to create my projects and suggestions, and never really took the time to deeply think about them, what their strengths and weaknesses are. With all of this extra time on my hands, I now have a proper chance to process the experiences and knowledge I’ve acquired through this endeavor, and I want to do this in a healthy way that would benefit the game. That of course would be through feedback and reviewing it, as this post is much more essay-like and lengthy than my typical suggestion posts are.

I’ve seen both sides of the coin in terms of these kinds of posts, both in the main thread and the comments. There are those who are zealous about the game, saying that it’s perfect, you’re just a complainer and should just quit the game because you suck and how dare you criticize a masterpiece like this. And on the other side, you have those thinking that Wynncraft has poor design choices. The game sucks, the Content Team sucks, the community knows what’s best and that they should listen to us all the time. Those who say otherwise are just mindless sheep of the game with no thought.
Obviously I’m exaggerating here and I don’t believe anyone has taken it to that extent, nor do I have any bias towards either side.
Where am I on this coin? Well, I’m the kind of person that likes to sit on the edge of it. A balance between both worlds you could say. If I was to choose an Audiobook reader for this, then it would be Gordon Freeman, as that's the tone I want for this review.

I’m not making this post to vent frustration, but I’m not also doing this with the intention to praise the game saying it has no flaws. There’s both good and bad about Wynncraft, and that’s the truth for any game that you play. I’m doing this with the hope that this feedback will help with future design decisions by the Admin Team, and that the game can improve. I started playing Wynncraft since 2013, and have seen the hefty amount of evolution it has gone through. The goal of this post is to give constructive feedback and criticism, and not just lay the problems of Wynncraft at team’s feet, completed with a shrug of having no ideas on how to fix them. Just to throw it out there, these are my own thoughts and opinions, and I don’t expect everyone to agree with all of them.

Don’t get me wrong, I do love the game, and I still do. I would still recommend everyone who hasn’t played the server to play it. It’s an amazing experience that you can’t get anywhere else in Minecraft, and one that I haven’t seen replicated successfully by anyone else yet. And there have been a lot of attempts at it.
However, while there are a lot of positives about Wynncraft, I’d say that there are quite a few negatives too. Some of these have been introduced recently, and others have been around since their inceptions. And as you play the game more, those flaws become noticeable to the point that you can’t bear it anymore. I sometimes feel like that’s the case for some players who have left. For example, Guilds have been neglected and have felt empty for so long that we’ve seen many players leave the community for greener pastures.

So those are my general thoughts. A bit long ya.
Onto the actual, specific feedback, there are a lot of points I want to address, but I limited to specific, yet abstract points to reduce the length of this post, as if I covered everything, it would be as long as @WithTheFish's Wynncraft History thread.

First Impressions

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Imagine you’re a new player in this day and age, and have never played a Minecraft RPG. But then, you hear about this server called “Wynncraft” from a couple of your friends on another server. You log on, create your class, and log into what could be the start of a phenomenal journey.

I believe that was the case for many players, such as myself. Many of us have never seen the magnitude of care gone into a server like Wynncraft. It hits the mark in impressing new players the first time, and really gives the impression that this world is huge, and going to be a journey to explore.
Of course, the player first has to learn the basics of Wynncraft, and I think that the current tutorial is pretty good. Fundamental mechanics and features are introduced well, such as identifications, spells, and professions. You learn how to talk to NPCs and the base story of the game. In my opinion, this is something that Wynncraft does greatly.

As you continue your journey, you get to learn more about the game, such as powders, and you eventually build up your first set of mis-mashed Uniques, maybe a Rare Weapon. Time goes on, you complete quests, do your first Dungeon, and get your first legendary: Witherhead’s Talisman. It’s fantastic for you and feels like a massive upgrade, considering you probably didn’t have a necklace beforehand.
As you play the game more, you meet people, do more quests, maybe join a Guild to see what it’s like. Every single step of the journey through Wynncraft feels like there’s always something new to see. It feels really good.

Now I do have some nitpicks. As mentioned before in previous posts, perhaps put professions in a more optional light. Putting it smack dab in the tutorial can make the player think they’re required to properly progress, when that really isn’t the case. Also introducing mobs with abilities would tell players that these types of enemies exist. Perhaps at the end of the tutorial, you need to fight a leftover Strong Zombie that has the Charge ability. It’d serve as a mini-boss fight for the player to get them pumped and more acquainted with combat.

I wish I could say more about the First Impressions side of Wynncraft, but I can’t really do that effectively without somehow putting temporary amnesia on myself. But just from my perspective of listening to other players and my own, first impressions is one of the best parts about Wynncraft, and I think it’s one of the aspects that needs very few changes to make it better, if any.

The Item System

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So next we have the Item System. I’ll start off by saying that the Item System is really unique and even outside of Minecraft, I haven’t seen anything like it.

So we’re on the page, Items in Wynncraft are hand-made items with specific purposes for their existence. They’re made to be used in tandem with other items, combined into sets commonly referred to as “class builds.” It’s a really cool concept, and one that is very well executed.
To get these items, you need to either acquire them via mob drops or loot chests, then identify them through an Identifier. This will reveal the item’s name, and it will roll specific stats, all with random values in a specific number range. The exception to this are Skill Point Stats, which are a static number now to help with making builds and not being screwed over by RNG.

(My current main weapon, Thrunda Ripsaw)​

But therein lies the biggest flaw with items: You have to roll the stats on them. It’s an aspect of the game that doesn’t really have a big effect on the early and midgame, but lategame and endgame is where it starts to become crucial. This also isn’t taking in the process of getting the right item.
In the endgame, items tend to have a lot of stat IDs. In order for some builds to play the most effectively, you need to roll good stats on your item, moreso on specific ones. But the chances of rolling good stats is so low that it sometimes feels impossible to do so.

To go more in-depth about how Identification rolls work, item stats have a base number attached to them, and it’s different for every item. When identifying an item, the base stats are multiplied by a random number between x0.3 and x1.3, or x0.7 and x1.3 if it’s a negative stat. And to clarify, this applies to every single stat, meaning the more stats you have on an item, the harder it is to get all of them to a high number.
Now most of the time, people focus on getting a couple of specific stats high, but just looking at the multiplication ranges is enough to cause some players to do a double take. The range of positive stats is a whopping difference of 1, and the range of negative stats is 0.6. A 40% reduction from positive, but still pretty high.

There’s also the topic of Mythic-tier items. Mythics are the rarest item in the game, the second being Fabled items at a 1/5,000 chance. Mythics however are at a whopping 7/1,000,000 chance of acquiring one from a mob drop or loot chest, and that is without loot bonus or loot quality. Given how powerful and crucial these items can be to one's build, it’s a bit crazy to the average player to think about the chances.
Loot Quality and Loot Bonus have made this situation better, but that’s a problem therein of itself. In order to get the best items in the game, you have to stack as much “Luck” as possible and pray the RNG Gods will grant you a favor.

Now finding a mythic is really exciting, don’t get me wrong. I don’t mythic hunt myself anymore, but when I did and got my first mythic, moreso my first (and only) Discoverer, I was filled with adrenaline and rush. But I think that this kind of acquisition for Mythics is flawed in the sense that it’s a game of intense luck that you get the mythic you want, and then hoping it has good rolls to go along with it. Personally I think it’d be better if Mythics were able to be acquired through a more surefire way, such as Mythic Questlines like the pre-gavel Bob’s Mythic Weapons.

(The only mythic I own is a Discoverer, and I don’t think that would make for a good example really… Thanks marketplace)​

However, we are getting the Forgery Chest in 1.20 which seems to have solved this issue. My concern with that however is that it will still be heavy RNG. Based on the little info we have, it seems like you’re guaranteed to get a mythic, but you don’t even know if it’s the mythic you want. Since it’s already confirmed that the Forgery Chest will be a much slower process of acquiring a Mythic than Loot running, I think there is room to make both of these methods equal in value.
A possible idea would be to make it so the Forgery Chest allows you to choose which Mythic you want, or at least the Mythic Category (ex. Spears, Daggers, Boots). Then, that mythic would have its baseline stats, so x1 for all stats, and players would have the option themselves to re-roll the mythic to see if they can get better stats. With this method, you’d be trading frequency of acquiring a mythic to consistency of getting the Mythic you want with semi-decent stats and the satisfaction of working towards an item instead of praying the dice rolls in your favor.

Going back to Identifications, I think there is also a better way to do this. Right now, the only way to get better stats is by rerolling an item, and this gets exponentially expensive the more times you reroll an item. Most items cap out at [5] before the player’s bank can’t take it anymore.
Now there are plenty of ways to improve this, but I’ll just list a few basic ideas.

1. Decreasing the cost of rerolls to grow less exponentially would give the player more opportunities to make their item better. This is probably the simplest method Dev-wise, though one I personally wouldn’t go with.
   
   
2. Making Rerolls only a positive bonus to your item. So instead of rolling a stat that is +15% in a range of 5-39%, you’d roll that stat in a range of +15-39%, so that way you can only get the same stat or better. This would also give better sense to the exponential cost, seeing as being able to reroll an item too many times could make it perfect. I don’t think many players would mind that though.
   
   
3. Another form of item progression, such as Stat reforging, where you can slowly upgrade the stats of your item overtime, either via Emeralds or acquiring special items that help boost the stats. This would give players a long term goal to work towards, so more reason to log on and do stuff.

(Ya…)​

My final piece of criticism is one that possibly can’t really be fixed without introducing some sort of new item upgrade type, and one that many players may not see as valid.

As you know, Dungeons and challenges, such as LI and Qira, give item rewards. Most of these items are designed to be used in build, specifically the Qira ones fitting into Elemental Tri-archetypes. Meaning, all of these items have a specific use.
However, there is a small problem with that, and it’s that the items themselves can sometimes determine whether a player runs a piece of content or not. As mentioned, items in Wynncraft are always made with a purpose, and most items go into builds. But the issue comes in when what happens when a player doesn’t need an item from a piece of content?
Well, then there’s no purpose to running it. The Item Rewards are, most of the time, the only reason a player does a piece of content, but when that content doesn’t offer something you need for a build or an upgrade to a piece of your build, then you tend to skip it. This in turn leads to fewer players running that content, and the only way to run it effectively is to get a group of friends that are willing to help you, or find others who also need to complete it.

Personally, this was my situation with how Eldritch Outlook rewards were done. There was nothing in the shop worth getting for me, and I didn’t intend to do professions. The only incentive for me to run EO is to unlock the final quest, A Hunter’s Calling, which was the main quest that gives me the rewards I need, as it gives me something that is used widely and I can choose what slot I want it in.
It may come off as a surprise to some of you, but my favorite items in Wynncraft are ones like the Ornate Armor Pieces, where it’s a slap piece and a replacement for if you need to fill in the blank for something, or replace an old armor piece that doesn’t compare to the DPS boost that Ornate gives. That’s because it’s a guaranteed upgrade, and it feels good to get that.
But back to Eldritch Outlook, after I completed it I never did it again really. The only times I did were for events such as the 50-man EO run, but beyond that, nothing. Like I said, this isn’t really fixable without introducing some sort of new item or upgrade progression system that involves clearing the content. This could coincide with idea #3 for Identifications, where some endgame content could drop specific items that boost the stats of an Identification. That would help for proper rewards and give players a reason to run the content. And in the future, if they ever add raids, they could serve this same purpose.

Of course, there are positives about the system, don’t get me wrong. For one, with how the system works, items always have a use, even some of the Uniques. There are plenty of stat types to go around, enough to create many different kinds of playstyles, or a hybrid of them. And thanks to powders further extending the spectrum, it’s a nice form of elemental item progression.
I think Major IDs are also a stroke of genius. There haven’t been many games in recent years that I’ve played where you can get passive-like stats on items. Right now there aren’t too many of these in-game, but personally I hope to see these be more used in the future. There are plenty of ways to expand on them and progress a player’s power and if they keep building on it, it could become a major and amazing feature for the Item System.

Gameplay

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Moving on, I want to talk about the Gameplay of Wynncraft some.

I don’t think it should come as a shock to many that Wynncraft has a lot of content to explore, and hours worth of gameplay to enjoy. This is due to the fact that it has been in development and cared for for over 7 years now, so one would expect that the amount of content in the game to have doubled since the pre-gavel era.

Let’s start with the classes first, since this is the first aspect of the game a player encounters. As of today, there are 5 classes total all with 4 spells each, and each spell has 3 “Grades” which will boost their base power by adding additional mechanics. Classes also use a unique style of input called the Click Combo System, probably one of the most iconic features of Wynncraft due to its simplicity, yet flexibility.
The class progression of Wynncraft is fairly linear. As you level up, at certain levels your spells will upgrade in power, with 66 being the last threshold of spell upgrades. There are no cooldowns either, and the mana cap is always a static 20 regardless of your level.

During its time of introduction, it was pretty revolutionary. Everyone loved it and many still do to this day. However, I believe that the spell system has aged fairly poorly. It has been 7 years since Wynncraft’s release, and for 7 years players have been stuck with the same 4 spells and upgrades. It’s not a bad thing, it’s just that many players would have expected something new to have come about by now. Perhaps a new way to perform the click combos, with 1.9 adding the Swap Hand Key this could be utilized in some way. New spells that you can swap out with the current ones, branching upgrades, talent trees, you name it. All of these features have been suggested at least once.
Personally, I think the main reason this hasn’t happened is because there is no cooldown between spell casts, and the player only has access to 4 spells at a time. There is no way to increase or decrease the amount of spells you can use at a time. It’s understandable why this is the case, but at the same time I believe that the spell system is due for some evolution, especially with the newest Minecraft Updates.
I don’t mean to harp on this too much. Classes are one of my favorite parts about Wynncraft, and I love them all even in their current state. Each of them fills a role and playstyle of some kind. As an Assassin, it’s always a blessing to be partied up with a Shaman or Mage to help keep you alive, or a Warrior to give you some buffs and help CC the enemies down.

(Lol only level 106, n00b)​

Combat is also another point I wanted to talk about. Now even with just 4 spells, the combat feels pretty fluid. There are at least 1 or 2 combos associated with each class, and once you get all 4 of your spells unlocked along with their upgrades, you can really start to become a beast. Of course, the experience of this differs for every class, as I know some aren’t as intuitive as others.
I do believe however that while the player-side of combat is pretty good, the mob-side is less so. I feel that even for new players, the mobs in Wynncraft feel very bland. Many don’t have spells, and the ones that do are re-used by other mobs throughout the entirety of the game. You’re bound to see the same Charge spell on a level 90 mob just as you had seen it on a level 30 mob. The only difference between them would probably be whether one does more damage or not.
I can’t really say too much about this though, as in recent times the GM team has gotten more access to more advanced Mob Spell Scripting, at least that’s what I’ve heard. Hopefully in the future mobs will have more interesting spells and combinations, and it won’t be a bland mishmash of mob spells we had seen in the past.
Something I do wish to see in the future in general is more content that is difficult to solo. Perhaps elite zones with ridiculously hard mobs that you’d need a small group to clear through. Or perhaps more raid dungeons, group-oriented boss fights, and so on. I think these can all be done with the right execution and dedication.

(Semi-tryhard I guess)​

Thirdly, Professions. What, did you think I’d forget this?
My thoughts about Professions are mixed, but to say it bluntly I think Wynncraft’s version of professions was good on paper, but bad in execution. This isn’t due to poor execution and was more due to multiple reasons.

Firstly, Professions were introduced way too late into Wynncraft. By this point, many people had reached level 100 and beyond and thought that they were done with the leveling grind. But then, Professions were introduced, and all of those level 100s had to start back at level 1 in every single profession.
I believe that if Professions were introduced during pre-gavel or earlier, players would have had more time to sink their teeth into it and work on it more. But introducing it so late into the game where one has to level a profession 1-100 is more than most players can tolerate. There was also no compensation or way to get a headstart on professions regardless of what level you were. I believe that if there was some magical ticket that allowed you to get a headstart on a couple of professions of your choice, it would have been more tolerable.

Second is that the majority of needs that professions satisfy for players is at endgame. This kind of coincides with the previous reason, where everything that players needed was at level 100 because all of those players were level 100. So forcing a player to re-level just to craft possibly a few pieces of equipment was quite abysmal in my eyes.
Getting a profession to level 100 is no easy task. The amount of time and work you need to put in is probably more than what it took for you to hit level 100 the first time. The only way to speed it up is to pay for Profession XP and Speed Bombs, and to toggle Hunted Mode which gives +50% Gathering XP at the cost of being able to be killed by other players. Hunted Mode is a beast in itself however, and I don't want to dive too deep into that.

I also believe that due to the complexity of the system, this isn’t something easy to balance from the Item Maker’s standpoint. Approximately 1000 ingredients were added on the launch of professions, with many of them being tweaked and balanced on launch. The complexity of professions is deep because you may nerf or buff an ingredient for one thing, but then it could have unintended consequences for another thing. Personally, I believe that if crafting went down a simpler route, where you could craft some of the existing items or crafted-only items, it would be easier to balance. Less dynamic for sure, but complexity doesn’t always mean fun.

Lastly, and a bit more minor one, is the fact that Loot Quality is tied to professions only. LQ is a much sought-after identification, having been deemed better than Loot Bonus because instead of increasing the frequency of items, it increases the quality of them, as one could guess by the name. With there being no way to acquire LQ through normal items and it also being locked at max level professions, players took heavy advantage of this, raking in mythics while also raking in the dough for selling crafted sets of LQ gear.
It’s a debate of whether or not LQ is healthy for the game in the long run. I don’t really know the answer to this, but I feel like there are arguments on both sides of the coin. On the negative side, some would argue that it floods the market with mythics, but personally I think that's a good thing with how hard they are to find. Others would argue that it makes Professions seem like you only level them just to get more lucky with Mythic finding. On the positive side, one would say that this helps a lot with mythic finding and relieving that stigma of these mythics being so hard to acquire by the average player, and also giving more use to Professions and creating a new type of product to sell on the marketplace.

That's about it for professions, a little subtopic within the Gameplay section if you will.

And for my final point on Gameplay, which I saved this for last because I believe this is the most important one, it’s the fact that Wynncraft feels more like a single-player game than a multiplayer game.

In the past, I’ve tried leveling characters with different friends of mine many times, and we all fall into the same pit that the game doesn’t feel like a multiplayer game. Every one of us could level on our own more efficiently rather than if we leveled up together. Most of the dungeons are also fairly easy and require maybe an additional partner to help you clear it if you’re undergeared a bit. It’s mainly that the content feels… easy. Most of it can be completed by yourself with little to no extra players by your side.
Don’t get me wrong, there is some multiplayer content as you level, such as the Tower of Ascension, Reincarnation, CoW, Qira, LI, and EO. But those are only 6 pieces of notable multiplayer content, the first of which you don’t really encounter until you’re a bit more than halfway through your leveling journey. And by then, there’s a good chance that the friends that you started leveling with may not be around to help you by then.
I think that by adding more multiplayer-level content, the game could be more fun to level in as a group and more challenging. It could also encourage more social interaction, and more of a reason to find friends or a guild to help you level up in. Elite zones, more difficult dungeons, anything that requires more than 3 players could be fun with the right implementation.

Content

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The last part I want to talk about of course is the content of Wynncraft.

I believe many would agree with me when I say that Wynncraft has the largest Minecraft Content Map to be made, with more still being added. We’re only at 2 out of the 4 planned provinces, the last one being 33% larger than the Wynn province. The world itself is beautiful, and rivals any and all other builds I’ve seen so far. I truly believe that it’s undeniable even to those that hate the game with a burning vengeance that the world is breathtaking. You can feel the care and detail gone into every part of every build, and many cool secrets to discover, whether minor or major.
Combined with an awesome soundtrack, Wynncraft’s world is nothing short of spectacular and is in my opinion the strongest point about the game. It’s pretty easy for one to get immersed in this world even in its voxel form.

I think the majority of the Quests are also fun. There are practically no grind quests in Wynncraft, and instead each one tells a story or takes you on an adventure. This may be subjective, but I personally like how Wynncraft tells its stories, and the D&D Questline was intriguing for me in a good way. The only thing I’d say that’s bad about this is it leaves little room for multiplayer or group Quests, which I hope is rectified in the future.

​

But therein lies a flaw in Wynncraft’s content: There isn’t much multiplayer content to go around. I know I addressed this some in the previous point, but carrying over that there aren't many points in the game where I’m playing a piece of content that makes me feel like I need some friends with me in order to complete it. I wish there was more of it, as I think it’d be healthy for the game.

Wynncraft is an MMORPG after all. It even says it in the title. But part of me feels like it’s missing the “MMO” side of it. MMOs are supposed to be played with other people, usually friends, and when you don’t have that aspect of it, groups of friends who started at level 1 may never make it to level 100 together.
I think there are many ways to introduce Multiplayer content. One would be making Elite Dungeons or Zones where the mobs are just harder in general. Perhaps defining class roles a bit more would help, such as Warrior’s War Scream being an AoE Taunt. It would also give more reason to bring along a tank warrior when doing the current group content, such as LI and Qira. Raid Dungeons and World Bosses are other staple parts of many existing MMOs which bring people together, and also Battlegrounds, which are of course more centered around PvP but is still a form of fun multiplayer content, as well as an extremely repeatable one at endgame.

Speaking of endgame, I also think that Wynncraft’s endgame could use some more work. There aren’t many avenues to take when you get there. The ones that stick out to me the most are grinding professions, joining a Guild, minmaxing your build, or doing a HIC run. I feel like to many players, 2 of these aren’t very fun or viable, with the remaining ones being “joining a Guild” or “doing a HIC run.”
So in short, there is little to do once you hit the max level. If I’m being honest, it’s a bit sad to see the endgame in this state, considering Wynncraft has been in development for 7 years. MMOs like Wynncraft can live and die by their endgame. If there isn’t enough of it to go around, then the players that you have kept via the excitement of the journey won’t find any left by the time they reach their destination.
There are plenty of ways to improve on this, but to sum all of those ideas up, giving players something plausible to work towards would give them a reason to log on everyday. I don’t mean mindlessly lootrunning until you get the mythic you want, but more of logging on everyday to say work on upgrading your items. The next step would be to give them a use for their work. For instance, applying that minmaxed build to an endgame raid boss fight, or an infinitely scaling challenge.

(Bit of free advertising for Fox)​

The last piece of content I want to talk about is Guilds but I think many of you know what I have to say about them. Besides joining an excellent sub-community and taking part in Guild Wars, players have little incentive for joining a Guild. They give no gameplay benefits to the player, meaning realistically they can do everything without being in a Guild.

It’s a sad truth about Guilds really, and I even feel bad about saying it out loud and admitting it. It’s both the fault of the current content, and how neglected Guilds have been. I believe that if there was more group content such as Raids or an active PvP scene, Guilds would be more alive and active, conquering Raids weekly or doing Battlegrounds. But since there’s none of that to do and the only content you can really do with your guild is War, it’s a pretty bland experience unless you’re extremely dedicated to your cause.
I feel that Wynncraft just doesn’t have the support for Guilds to exist. Guilds are supposed to promote community, working together towards a common goal or beating a common enemy or piece of content. However, since none of that really exists, you have to wonder why Guilds exist in the first place, and were implemented with little to no content to support them. I know that Guilds were a really popular suggestion before their inception, but when they were implemented, they were done so at the most basic level, and little has been done to expand off of them.

I’m not saying that they should be removed, but rather they should have more of a reason to exist. Probably the most direct way of doing this is adding in more direct Guild Content, such as Guild Halls, Guild PvP, and so on. This would help bolster the amount of content that only a Guild can do and more of a reason for current guilds to keep progressing. Outside of Guilds, as stated before adding more content tailored towards Multiplayer would help, such as Raids.
I’ve stated pretty much all of this before here, so feel free to go over there to see those ideas more in-depth, and also to support the idea of Guild Improvement as a whole, as I feel that many longtime players would love to see that, including myself.

Conclusion

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That pretty much concludes my thoughts on Wynncraft. I know that I probably missed a lot of stuff, like Hunted Mode, Dungeons, underlying mechanics such as steal rates and Attack Speed Damage Bonuses, but I wanted to keep it to the points that I think are the most crucial to Wynncraft right now.
I’m sure you may have not agreed with some of the things I said, and that’s okay. These are just my honest opinions on Wynncraft, and I don’t expect everyone to agree with them. If you like the game in a certain way and differ from my viewpoint, then cool! I'm glad you like it that way. I aimed to write this from a calm and neutral perspective, and hopefully I did just that.
I was debating on whether to write this before or after we got more news about what 1.20 was going to be, but I decided to do it before as I believe that this will help with making 1.20 better and more loved by the playerbase. Obviously we still don't know what it has in store for us and there's bound to be more features that will be revealed. This feedback is meant to be taken as a way for Wynncraft to improve itself more by the next major update.

Look, I’m not a Wynncraft Developer. I may have made tons of Wynncraft recreated content and suggestions, but that doesn’t mean that I know what goes on behind the minds of the Admins. I don’t have the answers to everything, nor do I expect the ideas I sprinkled throughout this post to be the perfect solutions. All of these problems still have to be taken initiative on by the Admins and the CT, and it’s up to them to come up with the solutions that work best for their game.
I know that there’s been a lot of controversy surrounding whether the Wynncraft Team listens or not, whether they care about player opinions, and why they haven’t made changes to certain features. For me, I think they have reasons on why they haven’t made changes, as I can imagine their todo list is already pretty long. I also think they do listen and actually relay feedback back to the main team, otherwise we wouldn’t be having these new Monthly CT Updates. I do hope that this does make it into their innerworkings and there are discussions about what to do next and improve.

I believe heavily that a game can improve through feedback and criticism, and that’s what I’m offering here. A game can never improve on its flaws if no one speaks up about them, even though it can sting to hear about it. With the right feedback and the right minds, I do think that Wynncraft can turn around and make it out the otherside, I really do. I may rant about the game in a negative light sometimes, but that doesn’t mean I hate it or want to see it die, and I believe that is the same for some of you. At the end of the day, we all just want to play a good RPG.
Wynncraft is one of the few Minecraft RPGs that has the ability to create something epic and memorable because it has the people willing to support it. For everyone else, it’s hard to pull something like that off because they have to start at the bottom and work their way up and take a risk at what could potentially be another grand RPG. Many of us stick around Wynncraft because we’re hoping for it to become what we want it to become. There aren’t many other avenues we can turn to for another Minecraft RPG, and Wynncraft is the only bastion that has the ability to make the content that we want.

Anyway, that's pretty much it. I know that this won’t be as popular as my other threads, and that’s okay. The point of this isn’t to rake in likes or reputation. If that was the purpose, I wouldn’t be staying true to myself or to the purpose of this post.
Keep in mind that this is just my own opinion, and that should be okay. I’m sure you have your own, and I respect that.

Thanks for reading, and as always, feedback is appreciated!

 

The amount of grind needed in professions are insane.
RNG imo isn't really a problem in wynncraft, as you can always find alternatives to an item. While mythics are obviously good, you can still make very good builds without them. And 1.20 is likely going to fix the issue of people not able to find any mythics at all. Personally I mostly use untradables in my builds, as they provide fairly good stats while not needing to reroll.
Content in wynn in excellent, and I can only see 1.20 update bringing it to a new height.
Guilds obviously needs to be changed, rn its monotonous, the warring mechanics are boring with all mobs being 1k fillers.
You don't really need LQ if you are just a casual who doesnt lootrun. Lootrunning is obviously a big part of the game, and a good resource of items. But with the introduction of 1.20 forgery chests then there is a new way to get mythics without as much rng, and the necessity of LQ will go down.
Personally I would like to see more quests like ??? that requires multiple players to increase player interaction with each other.

 

When I got that tag and immediately thought it was feedback towards me or something


Anyway, this is an extremely well-written thread. That being said, I have some of my own feedback to give on things you said (this is all my personal opinion, and it doesn't represent the thoughts of any other people or groups)

I think this is already done pretty well in the game - Decrepit Sewer Key Guardians are pretty common in Nivla and the Ragni Plains, and they use the pull spell. And if Witherhead is your first introduction to mob spells, then that'll just make the fight seem even cooler.

This might be a controversial take from me, but I don't mind stat rolls, and I feel like they're necessary for the game. Wanting a better roll gives players something to strive for in the endgame, and making it to easy to get top-tier rolls could ruin longevity. It could also hurt the market but I'm not getting into that.

I feel like making low-rolls slightly less punishing might be a better solution to how rolls work.

From my experience with several HIC/HICH classes in the early game, I actually don't think early game crafted is that bad. You can create some pretty cool stuff, but after a certain level, is it really worth the time? Crafting is just too long and too grindy to persuade most players from doing it. The early-game prof grind isn't too bad if you're doing it at level 100+, I've never had an issue with it and it's kinda cool exploring old areas + you can potentially get ingredients from the market.

Agreed 100%. That being said...

...stuff like Bob's Tomb is not exactly well-received. I'd be fine with more multiplayer stuff as long as there was some one to possibly do it solo, or that Looking-For-Group suggestion you had got implemented.


Aside from all this, I pretty much agree with what you wrote. Great job on this.

 

Actually 2.5/6 provinces. Wynn, Gavel and Corkus (which is half because in my opinion it lacks a lot of possible content). What we don't have is Fruma, Dern and Realm of Light

Otherwise agree with majority of he things

 

It's seeming like 1.20 is going to be a general revamp, Early game is definitely going to be updated, as shown by the july snapshot/sneak peek thing. A gavel revamp of some sort is also very likely. Hopefully they will also address some of these issues.

Also, the rerolling thing where rerolling becomes more of upgrading mechanic sounds good, but the pricing may need to be changed. I'd say increase the slope, but make it much less exponential. (1st and 2nd roll will be a bit more expensive, but other ones will be similar to how they are now/maybe even cheaper)

 

Wait what
I don't think they have ever used one on me

 

I believe the rolls somewhat devalue the feeling of getting the item because it could have undesirable rolls, which is my main problem with it. Another thing about them, and I forgot to include it, is that it muddies the waters between player power. For example, you could spend ages trying to get the mythic you want with good rolls, while your friend might be lucky and spend less time and less money getting his mythic simply because he got lucky. And since there's no guaranteed way to upgrade your item, you're basically stuck with it unless you find a new one.

I do see how rerolls implement and sustain longevity, and seeing as it was a popular request at the time of its implementation I think it did that. However, I think it may be better if rerolls were changed to be something more progressive, and not regressive in the sense that you could get really good rolls or really bad ones by gambling your bank away. This can still be done in a way that increases longevity, and in fact I think it'd be more effective as players would now have the confidence that they can upgrade their items safely, even if it does require a bit more effort to do so.

 

>The economy is also a weak point on Wynncraft as well, it's quite mad to know that you're letting people define market prices.

Its just supply and demand
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> Why in earth mobs don't drop valuable junk?

Supply and demand, theres too much supply and quite little demand for specific items dropped by mobs, thus said specific items arent worth much

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> New players also have no clue on how to price an item, how do you define the price of the new mythic that you found?

Try to look for reference trades made recently

 

We have 3 actually, you can’t forget about Corkus. Does Dern even count as a province? Anyways great thread.

 

It is more of a pseudo-province though, also iirc they aren't legally considered a province

 

True.

 

This may seem harsh to say, but the professions system is the most disappointing feature ever implemented into Wynncraft. Yes, even guilds with how broken and neglected they were. At least they didn't make bombs and Hunted mode an unofficial requirement to do them or else you'll spend an entirety grinding them. Which was an extremely shitty move on Wynncraft's part and it's what I hate about professions the most; it's EA levels of forced grinding to push you to buy micros transactions. Yeah, I get it; they need money to survive. Every game does and that's why I donated. Plus they also made dungeon bombs less necessary in the latest news update, even though it would hurt their revenue.

However, that still hasn't changed anything about how forcibly grindy professions are. It's absurd how grindy and tedious they are, especially when professions first came out. And I despise how the system forces you to craft hundreds of items that you won't actually use. Imagine if Minecraft now had crafting levels and forced the player to craft 15 wooden swords to make a stone one, or a 100 iron swords to make a diamond one. That's how much it takes away from the experience in Wynncraft.

The worst part is that especially for crafted weapons, you have some much RNG that it's harder to get the perfect item than it is to get a perfect obtainable. Not only do you have to deal with random IDs, you also have random base damage, combat levels, and even attack speed. Not too mention that crafted armor and weapons have worse and fewer IDs than obtainables on individual items. It doesn't make any sense how they were supposed to be better than obtainables and rival mythics when:

-They have durability
-Worse and fewer IDs (except loot quality)
-Are much more time-consuming to get
-Have less build options and more RNG, even though they're supposed to be customizable...

What annoys the living daylights out of me is how people shrug off criticisms of professions because they're optional. Not saying you do at all; just from personal experience. You can say almost everything in the game is optional; you can skip quests, grinding, dungeons, etc. That does NOT mean they are a good feature. Especially when you think about all the work they had to do to implement professions: replace almost EVERY tree, create hundreds of resource nodes, design and balance a 1000 ingredients. It disheartens greatly me that they put in so much work into it and even delayed 1.19 just to have it come out as an unbalanced, grindy, but "optional" mess. Just think about all the features they could've implemented instead; revamped guilds, pvp, or heck even housing would've been a better feature.

Ingredients still have a long way to go too. Why does Bat Ear exist? It's just a worse item than Forest Web in every single way. Or Rotten Bone and Leather? Why do we need 5 ingredients from level 1-19 for armoring that give sp for defense but not other skill points? Why not replace them with IDs that don't exist at that level range like loot bonus or raw health regen? Obtainables in that level range have those IDs. Who thought that this was good idea to have only 4 poison ingredients for tailoring?

That's right, you can't get better than 8/3s poison from level 16 until level 91! For comparison, the 23 leggings and the 21 boots that have poison are orders of magnitudes higher.
Armoring is just as worse; only 4 poision ingredients, 1 of which is your only option at level 20 until level 90.

Did I mention they completely forgot exploding for tailoring?

The system would be far more enjoyable if they just gave players more customization and completely got rid of crafting levels and restrict crafting solely to your combat level and 2 professions per class. It would cut down on so much tediousness. Plus you'd still be restricted by the level of the materials you use, so you'd either have to grind them or buy them from someone. You also won't have to keep track of your crafting levels falling behind your combat level anymore. To compensate people who already grinded their crafting levels, their class will be able to craft in more than 2 crafting professions according to the ones they already gotten at least level 50 in. Oh yeah and don't wipe their leaderboards.

 

A very valid point and one I agree with. I believe what happened is that by giving players the ability to level all 12 professions (4 gathering, 8 crafting) all at once, it created the idea and dynamic that you have to do that. This probably was never intentional, as you said, and I do think that if it was handled in the way it should've been by the players, the system would've flourished more.

 

Concur with Nova on this point. I think the professions system itself does a pretty good job of encouraging this dynamic (balancing issues aside), but the rest of the gameplay and the way professions was pushed around 1.18 made it seem like all prof levels were intended to be leveled to endgame by everyone (e.g. original tutorial).

 

That's why I and others have said during and after the HERO Beta each class should be restricted to 1 crafting profession and it’s 2 respective gathering professions, and restricted crafting based on your combat level instead of an individual crafting level. That way they could’ve made professions a LOT less tedious, less complicated, spur trade, and you wouldn’t have to craft items you don’t want, especially if you don’t have ingredients. And avoided the whole problem of people not knowing to only do a few. I understood why you didn't want people to have access to all 12 from the start in order to not flood the market and like you said spur trade by specialization instead. Just that you shouldn't have had a class level up 12 professions at the same time.

Because of it, now everyone has a hard time leveling up ANY profession. And even if it was restricted as I said, hardcore players could still do the other 11 professions through other classes. I don't think that's unreasonable given how hard it is to level up from 1 to 105 and the game already encourages you to replay the game with different classes.

From talking to others and looking at previous threads and the trade market, it just seems that people only trade ingredients at most because no one is certain there is a market for their crafted items. Or even if they’re that much better than regular items (especially after ingredients were nerfed). The crafting section on the forums is a ghost town compared to the class builds section, and most people I’ve heard that do professions rely heavily on bombs. Not to mention that low to mid level crafted items aren’t just worth it.

You could still implement this idea of class restriction now by still preserving crafting levels, but crafting levels don't restrict a player's initial choice of crafting profession. And it would be only until they leveled up their crafting level normally that they could try another crafting profession and its gathering professions. That way it doesn't change how grindy gathering is, preserves people's current crafting levels, and people would still have to craft as much as before if they wanted to experience other professions on the same class.

I don't know you personally or any else on the staff or CT. So I cannot say whether or not you or anyone else here are greedy. All I can go off of is what you do and say online, just like anyone else. And I still don't think after all this time that you or anyone else are greedy; I'm just conflicted about how professions were implemented because if it was any other game most people would say it was because of greed. Though I do apologize and I retract my statement that it was out of greed.

I don't mean to vilify anyone who does like professions right now either. All I have ever simply asked is that we can all enjoy them. Because the economy isn't just about a very select group of people; it includes everyone. So professions should reflect that.

 

I definitely don't think an arbitrary restriction is a good way to deal with this. I actually think the problem was mostly solved in the design, but wasn't made clear to players.