I'm replaying Wynncraft, here's my thoughts (part 5 out!)

Hey so I'm making a new class without challenge gamemodes for the first time since I powerleveled my shaman, so I figured that this would be a good time to give a complete review of a standard 1-106 playthrough. I'm taking things slowly and there's no guarantee I'll even finish this class, but I hope to get out as much feedback as I can. Yes, this thread will be continuously updated as I play with new posts. Gotta keep the thread alive in this mostly-dead section somehow.

Here's what I'll be covering

• All Dungeons
• Most Quests (I'm skipping ones that don't seem useful and haven't been updated in a while)
• Raids
• Endgame discoveries
• All boss altars

I WON'T be covering

• Profs as a whole
• Class/item/gameplay balance
• Builds (the ones made with minecraft blocks. exceptions will be made if builds have a significant affect on gameplay)
• Earlygame discoveries
• Guilds (maybe. if there's ever some huge alliance war i might try jumping in the fray)

A few other things to keep in mind:

• I'm going to try my best to keep a new player's perspective in mind.
• I won't use skill point pots or crafted items.
• If I find mythic boots or wands I'm using them. Unless it's Pure. That just feels like cheating.
• For this playthrough I chose Mage, simply because I think new players are drawn towards it slightly more than the other 4.
• I'll be using no items from my bank or other classes with one exception (a T7 emerald pouch) - I'm not playing as ironman though.
• I'm spending an above-average time lootrunning and intentionally picking old servers so I can profit while playing - I'm well aware that 99.999% of new players won't do this.
• I'm also avoiding using items from armor and weapon merchants in cities as a form of a self-imposed """challenge""" (I need something like this to keep me interested okay).
• Also I'd like to point out that I've been playing this server for 5K hours so I'm kind of a jaded cynic.

Without further ado, let's begin.

Spoiler: LEVELS 1-5

King's Recruit:
I'm not covering this here, sorry. I and others have discussed this quest to death ever since it got reworked in 1.18, and honestly I have zero motivation to talk about it.

also i did /skiptutorial this run

Ragni:
Ragni is pretty great. Having all the major merchants in a row works well as it lets new players know what they do. My favorite part about it is how calm you are. There's no cutscenes to interrupt you, no barrage of NPCs. You can just wander around the city, and by extent the world, at your leisure. The fact that Enzan is straight ahead points you in the "right" direction, but otherwise you're on your own. Stuff that's a bit too much for new players, like housing and pigman's ravines is blocked off by warning signs or a price tag. I love how much there is to do in the city too, you can really just explore and find some pretty sights.

Enzan's Brother:
Apart from a somewhat related issue I'll get to in a bit, this is a great way to get the player out into the world. It doesn't have any issues and is pretty solid overall. First Steps is a nice reward that introduces accessories and also serves as good motivation to do more quests. I also like the random loot chest in the energized shroom cave, it feels like a good way of showing that loot chests are natural in the world.

The "First" Secret Discovery:
Let me start by saying what this does right. Showing newcomers that you can attack items is nice, same with right-clicking on some stuff for an affect. If this was somehow introduced into Enzan's Brother in a natural way, this would be perfect (perhaps in a secret passageway that leads back to the identifier's basement or something?).

The discovery and subsequent miniboss are likely detrimental to the new players. JaydonTheWarrior has a pretty good thread on it, but to summarize, it seems too likely that new players will interpret the boss as a part of the quest and will become compelled to fight it, with potentially discouraging results. I didn't attempt the boss on my mage, but I did try it on a level 11 warrior I had lying around, and I did so with no armor, no skill points, and an oak wood spear. I won, but my health was at 14/60 at one point and the fight honestly felt as hard as witherhead did on my mage. I'm fine with hard earlygame bosses in something like Dark Souls, but I feel like Wynn is a lot more laid-back and it makes sense to ease players into challenging fights over the course of one's journey.

And assuming I do get the crap beaten out of me here as a new player... I'd probably be a lot more wary of exploring the beaten path, or even attempting quests.

(I'd like to add that I'm fine with a challenge like this existing, even in the early game, but making it so obvious to level 1-3 players might be too much)

What I dislike more is the expectations this sets for secret discoveries. It isn't even secret - it's right there in the open. It explains very little about the lore in contrast to other discoveries. It centers around a boss fight, which is very rare for secret discoveries. As a new player, my expectation for secret discoveries would probably be hidden bossfights. Sure, some other nearby discoveries would rectify this perspective, but it just feels so out of place. There was no reason to add this, considering the discovery with the four watch towers did a great job at introducing me to secret discoveries when they were added to the game.

Cook's Assistant:
This quest didn't age well. It's just so boring. I like how we get to go to Katoa Ranch and by extension, have the location of the first dungeon introduced to us, but the quest itself isn't that fun. If it's meant to introduce gathering to us, I think that Underwater does that a lot better. A quest that unlocks the ability to wear First Steps and sends you to Katoa Ranch would still be a positive IMO, but it could be done a lot better. Maybe you're sent to Katoa Ranch and have to chase around some chickens or something?

(I skipped Poisoning the Pest btw, so I can't really offer my thoughts on that. I also skipped Underwater because I do not want a quest helmet)

Infested Plants:
Call me crazy but... I like this quest. Or at least I tolerate it. It's a 5/10 IMO; a perfectly average quest that I will use as the baseline for all others. "Exploring" the canopy and spider cave is nice - being swarmed by spiders when you exit isn't.

Also wait... this would actually make a good secret discovery and by extension, a good introduction to secret discoveries! I don't think reworking the quest into one would change too much.

Miniquest - Slay Spiders:
I like miniquests and think they're cool.

The Road to Detlas:
I feel like people don't really talk about this much: While heading to Detlas, there are no checkpoints. You die to a skeleton before reaching Wynn's iconic city? All the way back to Ragni for you. I don't think some checkpoint town should be added - rather, after Nivla woods, the road should be a lot safer. This can be done by:
- Removing the NPC who informs you about that loot tower. He could easily be moved to Detlas.
- Less dangerous hostile mobs on the road - I think I've seen Infested Pit guardians here (not too certain though) and they're honestly too much.
- This idea is probably overkill but having a bunch of soldiers fighting corrupted here would help players, fit in with the lore, and probably look cool as hell.

Spoiler: LEVELS 5-10

Tunnel Trouble:
I remembered this being the best quest in a playthrough prior to unlocking Misadventure on the Sea, and now that I've done it again, I don't think that opinion will change. This is seriously one of the better quests in the game IMO. It's the first quest where I feel like you're on an "adventure" with someone and does so really well. Linton may not be next Ava, but he's cool. Drale coming out of nowhere may feel kinda odd, but it's a good way to add another interesting element to the quest's storyline along with showing players that quests aren't just about killing mobs and exploring caves. The reward is seriously great too, I love this fast travel feature. It's especially nice how it ends in Ragni, right next to...

The Sewers of Ragni:
Almost as good as Tunnel Trouble, and this is also almost a companion quest in the sense that it shows players things they'll see throughout their journey, like unique parkour, interacting with stuff (igniting the TNT and breaking that one pillar), and killing mobs to progress through a region. It's also the first quest to get more into the lore, which I appreciate. The lore isn't for me, but I'm glad people like it.

Honestly, this quest is better than the dungeon it unlocks. Theoriac (the chestplate reward) might be bit busted, especially for mage, but to be fair the earlygame is easy in general and you outgrow it so fast.

Decrepit Sewers:
I remember back in like 2016 I was trying to get my cousin back into Wynn and we played through this. We stopped shortly after, and I think I now understand why.

This dungeon is boring. I get that it's meant to be the tutorial dungeon, but it does nothing unique at all. You just fight some generic mobs, do some generic parkour, and fight a boss who I'll admit feels unique. The rewards for the dungeon are its saving grace; given how cheap they are doing it will probably feel worth your while.

I get that this is the "tutorial dungeon" in a sense, but what does it introduce? Parkour? You've already done that, and I'm sure players would expect to encounter it in any dungeon. Killing mobs for tokens? This could've been done in Sewers of Ragni, and it certainly didn't need to be done twice. This dungeon needs some gimmick(s) to set it apart from others. Some ideas I had are navigating a raft across poisonous water, skeleton archers shooting at you from afar, or maybe Witherhead briefly showing up to hind your progress, much like how she kept popping up during the Sewers of Ragni. It just needs something to show players it's a dungeon, not just an eco cave with a boss, special rewards, and a convenient spawn point.

Wynn Plains Loot/Eco Caves:
Caves with T3/T4 loot chests at the end of them (which I'll refer to as eco caves for convenience) are introduced pretty well in the Wynn plains. They aren't too far off the beaten trail and usually have convenient markers to attract any 10 year old who just started playing. Nothing to criticize here.

But... I do have something to praise. That one eco cave near Nivla Wood's entrance. You know the one. It's honestly better than the Decrepit Sewers, and the place I wish that dungeon was. It's genuinely one of my favorite pieces of content in Wynncraft (and the best from levels 1-27). I lootran it like 3-4 times on this playthrough and enjoyed it every time. Let me break it down room by room.

- The first room is pretty basic. My only feedback would be to remove those pillars the "Crystal Guardian" mobs spawn on. Their drops are necessary to progress, and players who kill them from afar might not notice they dropped anything.
- The parkour room is pretty basic, but on my second run, I noticed a secret passage, accessible only by harder parkour... or a movement spell. This is SO cool. I wish stuff like this was more common: both secrets and places where using your movement ability gives you an advantage.
- The third room is also quite basic, but I like how you're given chances to turn back and return for even greater rewards when you're stronger. Eco caves that are structured this way are so cool.
- The final room with the giant chess pieces is awesome. It feels so tense and that at any moment you could end up in serious trouble - I attempted it as a level 11 mage and would've died if not for heal. I love how there are multiple ways to approach this room. Do you sneak through and use the barriers as cover, or brute-force your way to the end?

Upon reaching the end I got... two recently-opened loot chests. Needless to say, I was underwhelmed. It would be cool if the more-challenging eco caves had special rewards, not dependent on someone else not already completing the challenge. Exclusive rewards like Spiketop would be cool.

Freedom of Exploration:
I feel like even at this early stage of playing Wynncraft, you have a lot of freedom to choose the adventure you want. Do you travel straight to Detlas to reach Tunnel Trouble? Or do you stay around in Ragni to complete Underwater and Sewers of Ragni/Decrepit Sewers and get stronger first? There's also the secret discoveries, and pigman's ravines, and elkurn, and just so much to see and do. I was worried that Wynn would feel too linear, but unless you're doing every quest in level order (which I doubt everyone will do), it doesn't feel that way at all. I always felt like I had a ton of different things to do, much like when I started Wynn eight years ago.

Other Notes:
- Heal + Raw Melee is so good, and made it so that I never really felt in danger. Too OP, or not really an issue this early?
- uhhhh
- I'm tired i might add more later

LEVELS 10-18 (click to view)
LEVELS 19-28
LEVELS 29-38
LEVELS 39-43

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I'd like to reiterate that at the end of the day, this is all my opinion. You might disagree, which is great! I'm hoping we can get some good discussion about Wynncraft going in the comments. Thank you for reading, and have a great day!

 

there was one last month you missed it

 

I'm curious to see how long it takes you to reach lvl 50, which took me 5 years haha

 

I agree that the dungeon is not too amazing, but imo it is still good.

I would change the first room and make it something like the first room in Ice Barrows except instead of caverns it would be pipes. I would also put the entrance to the upper floor in the second token room somewhere a little bit less straightforward.

Other than that, it needs imo only atmospheric changes, like cutscene with Witherhead as you suggested or maybe a meeting with a survivor if you explore a bit. Nothing major mechanics-wise.

 

So far it hasn't been too bad, although I am expecting the level 40-50 range to be more slow.

 

absolute banger of a thread from fish going to give personal takes on some of these

agree with pretty much this entire section but to a more extreme degree. i really dislike the current iteration of secret discoveries. not because they're bad or anything (most of them are actually pretty fun to find and do, except for the ones with excessively long cutscenes with the new dialogue changes) but because of the fact that they are logged as progress making them more of a "necessity" (loose term, really only applicable to completionists but still gets the general meaning of what i'm going for i think) than just a cool thing you might find. the fact that your quest book has a fairly obvious x/102 inevitably leads to guides and threads and whatnot highlighting where all of them are (for the record, i have nothing against these guides--they're great for the current state of secret discoveries, because some people want to 100% the game but don't want to bother finding all 102 on their own), and, even if you don't use the guides and find them all by yourself, the fact that the guides exist takes something out of the "finding" process, because it doesn't really feel like you found a cool secret anymore. maybe just me though?
world discoveries do something to remedy this, seeing as they aren't logged anywhere, but they are also very one dimensional--to my knowledge, they are all activated by just showing up to a place for the first time, and maybe interacting with something there, while secret discoveries oftentimes require multistep processes not constrained to one small area (fate of the olm, summoner's fate, to a degree the ones requiring profs, etc), and, as such, feel less rewarding as a "find," at least to me.
leaving that, the only other things i can think of are ariodo's lab/talking mushroom (which i am pretty sure is only not a secret discovery because jungle doesn't have them) and llevigar library (which i'm pretty sure is only not a secret discovery because you can get locked out of it based on fortuneteller choice), both of which i think are pretty cool, with only the slight issue of the fact that there are 100 more secret discoveries than unlisted finds like this. even including world discoveries, there's still probably a discrepancy of around 85, so.
adding on to that, there seems to be a trend of either deleting or turning into secret discoveries cool places. some are justified as being deleted, like the portal on black road, because it really clashes with wynn lore or something? yeah i have no idea but i'm sure some of them have justifiable reasons, but some of them, like this weird thing outside of detlas (coincidentally, this thread also sums up my feelings about exploration as a whole pretty well) really do not seem to have a reason to be removed.

it's not to say that exploring is entirely unrewarding--i still think it's really cool when i find a misc. or junk item, considering that all(?) of them were supposed to have been turned into ingredients, so finding mobs that still drop them feels like you've actually found something secret, considering that if more people knew about it there would probably be one more +1-4% water defense -73 durability tier 0 ingredient in the game--i just wish that there were more things that really felt like you were discovering something instead of just chancing on it existed without being tied to a tangible indicator (pretty unrelated but old finding the light quest was one of my favorites because of something /outside/ of the quest: the little house near the guardian of the forest had an npc talking about how the shock of volt goat horns could wake things up, seeing as the only dialogue the quest provided was along the lines of "you should find something to wake the tree up," crucially not specifying to go to [x, y, z] and kill the volt goat to get its horn, instead, it gave an avenue for solving it outside of guesswork or the wiki that felt genuinely rewarding. unfortunately! that's all gone and a bunch of other things seem to be, for lack of a better term, getting "dumbed down"--see efilim secret discovery literally telling you exactly what to do with the healing potion and pretty much where to find them all (though it isn't a healing potion anymore, just the medicinal herbs from the nearby merchant. probably should be changed.) like, i'm definitely a fan of making it more new player-friendly and independent, so you don't have to check the wiki or whatever on every quest, but sometimes making it this obvious just makes it painful. praying for finding the light system.)

bless. it's so tedious, especially at a low level without movement spell spamming. i think a cool concept would be kind of a like a baby version of recipe for disaster, where you have to do the cooking (not necessarily profession cooking, more like recipe for disaster, where you get three different ingredients and combine them to get a different result)

so true bestie

ambivalent on this one. on the one hand, sure, lots of content in detlas area, good for people to be able to access it. but on the other hand, i definitely am a fan of having challenges with unproportionate difficulty that should be avoided instead of fought, because it creates more interesting gameplay instead of just fight everything.

just to clarify, this is detlas side of the bridge, right? if the soldiers would be in nivla, that could make item and ingredient grinding a little bit of a nightmare, as soldiers don't give you the drops.

i think the cow stealing part is cool

so true i despise this dungeon. your ideas seem pretty fun.

this one cave in particular is great. variable paths, ability to opt out, not tedious token grinding. incredible. should be a model for more eco caves (like. compare to se. where it's literally just kill x mobs to open the door.)

i don't really consider it an issue because from my experience a lot of completely new players (especially those who pick mage with the shiny and ever-so-misleading 5 boxes in spells) don't prioritize raw melee, if they build at all. for repeat players, they are most likely aware of it, and can choose to use it for an easier time, or avoid it for a bit more of a challenge. i think it's fine.

 

I agree with all of this, espcially what you said about discoveries and exploration. While I think that they're still well-hidden and do feel like secrets, it's sad that they feel like the only secret, and not on the same level as stuff in the past. It doesn't feel like there's an incentive to explore once you've completed your list of discoveries, while in the past I felt like there could always be some unbelievably hidden stuff on the server.

You did make a good point about the road to detlas additions I propose though, now that I think about it changes like that probably aren't needed apart from moving the NPC to detlas

 

I would argue that on the other hand people have an indicator that there are still (usually quite important) pieces of lore laying around.
Take for example "The Broken Protector" (or partially "The Fallen Protector") which are the only information (to my knowledge) we really get about them. This way they get to know at least something about them, unless they are the kind who just do them and do not read the dialogue.

I agree, they are not really "secret" secret discoveries and there should be totally some of similar or equal importance, but probably something more deeper than the current ones. Some could also be just changed to world events, for example "Cracket Canyon" or "The Great Barrier" SDs.

 

I'm just incredibly slow.. For me 40-50 went faster than the other levels, but that was just because I now understand the game better and are less distracted by climbing random mountains. I really enjoy reading your thread!

 

Thank you! And yeah, I don't think there's anything wrong with playing the game slow, the journey is the reward!

 

i'd be fine if secret discoveries were for the ones actually important to lore but like. i don't think you can make the argument that the majority of secret discoveries have large importance relative to lore.

 

I agree that this is a great way to introduce new players but this stuff has already been covered in Kings Recruit, and new players can't /skiptutorial until they have at least one level 50+ class. The first npc you interact with has a "Right click with empty hand to interact" or something along the lines, and Kings Recruit has you go into a cave to get an unidentified helmet and then they proceed to lead you to the item identifier.

 

Oh thank you for pointing that out, I only played through the newest version of the tutorial once so I forgot it had those things.

 

I've never played the old tutorial because I joined in 1.20, so the new one is the only one I'm aware of. Maybe the old one didn't have it, I'm not sure.

 

Part 2:

Spoiler: ELEMENTAL EXERCISE

The Quest:
In terms of misleading new players, this quest is a far greater offender than that one secret discovery. But before I talk about that, let me talk about the quest itself, because it isn't that good either in my opinion. You talk to a guy, kill a mob, then talk to him again. Then you enter a cave and there's a cave-in for some reason and then you have to exit the cave and for some reason the exit is really far from the entrance. There are also cutscenes (albeit very short ones) seemingly for the sake of cutscenes.

Now let's talk about what the quest teaches you. Ragon says in theory, Earth mobs should be weak to Fire, but this is an issue for many reasons. One: "Earth" mobs aren't guaranteed to be weak to that element. I feel like Earth defense is most commonly associated with Air weakness, but even telling the player that will mislead them into thinking that this applies to every "Earth" mob. Two: what is an "Earth" mob? A mob with Earth Defense? Earth Damage? Looks like it could be a grass-type pokemon? It's so vague.

When you're tasked with defeating the mob, your temporary fire weapon shreds through it. By this point there have been very few mobs with elemental weaknesses, and this could even be a player's first introduction to one. I think this could lead to players doing something I did when I elements are first added: owning a weapon for each elemental type, and swapping between them for each weakness, even if that weapon is question is worse than another one you have.

Honestly though, did this quest need to teach anything? I think players will pick up quickly that those [Weak] [Defense] icons above a mob's head will correlate with the elements on their weapon, and the mobs that can teach them that will probably have much less extreme elemental weakness defense.

What are new players even supposed to know?:
Elemental weaknesses and defenses are a very easy idea to grasp in my opinion. It's a concept in well-known stuff like pokemon and even without other media featuring it players would probably figure out quickly. However, Wynncraft has a lot of stuff that players either need to figure out on their own (with difficulty) or look at something like uwynn or a forum guide for info on:
- What the Elemental Damage/Defense ID does (I feel like people would think it converts neutral damage to elemental damage or something)
- How life/mana steal activates
- How Spell/Melee Damage % and Raw Spell/Melee Damage works
- Powders being usable in crafting
- Loot bonus/quality loot chest caps
- Probably a lot more...

I'm not even sure how this would even be introduced. Maybe through like a library in Detlas or something?

The builds I'll be using:
For the sake of science, I am going to be doing this playthrough with scuffed builds. I'll be adhering to the following conditions:
- Allocating all skill points equally (this is what I did when they were released).
- Always having an item in my hotbar that can do damage for each element, whether it's one rainbow weapon or 5 weapons
- Not focusing on optimal mana regen/steal
- Sticking to items that seem like they have no weakness (so stuff like Undefined)
- No Morph (hopefully)

Let's see how this goes. Once I get to content like Qira I'll probably switch to a reasonable build, like what I did during Gavel's release.

Spoiler: LEVELS 10-16

Mushroom Man:
This build got a few changes last year, most of which aren't the most notable. The quest is still boring and Yahya does nothing to interest me. I like how you now get a T1 tool to farm some mushrooms. I also find it interesting how there's no path from Yahya's house to Nivla Village, and I think this is a good thing. Yahya gives good enough directions and even if you get lost you'll still find some cool stuff, reinforcing the idea that players should explore for the fun of it. Yahya could mention that the village is on the perimeter of Nivla, so players could circle around the forest as a last result - this would be better than adding a road to the village IMO.

This is the first quest with a quest item, and boy is it a weird one. I don't know why I need a bowl for a "later quest", it's literally just a bowl. I actually don't mind ToL requiring rewards as much as most players (maybe this is stockholm syndrome), but this is a baffling one to have for ToL. It just sits in your bank for so long and feels like such a strange item to prove your worth to Kelight lorewise. I'd remove Yahya's Stained Bowl from the game.

Maltic's Well:
By the time I was done with Mushroom Man, I was already level 16. By playing through the game slowly I had managed to make it to this level without needing to grind those mushroom mobs or anything, which is nice IMO. I still had a few other quests I could've done at this point too.

Maltic's Well is an interesting quest because it's the first one in which you don't feel like the good guy. One thing I'm paying attention to this playthrough is if your character has a "villain arc" as they go through ever quest in order, culminating in AHC where you have visions(??) of committing atrocities. The reason I say you're the villain in Maltic's Well is that I actually feel bad for the witch in this quest. Overall the quest is pretty much "walk forward" in terms of gameplay, but the quest's dialogue helps elevate it a lot. I'm honestly unsure why I had to kill her, she didn't seem like she was purposefully putting the child into harm, and it seemed like the people of Maltic were mean to her for no reason. I mean, she isn't even corrupted or anything. I wish there was a choice to spare the witch, which might actually be a good way to introduce choices in quests. Maybe with the new dialogue system something could be done...?

Maltic's Recommendation Letter feels like a much better quest item btw, it actually feels like something useful unlike a literal bowl.

Bank Space:
On the topic of quest items, I'd like to point out that bank space has yet to be an issue. All I had or would've put in there were my two quest items and my emeralds, and possibly powers and items I'd use later if I felt like a hoarder. The first few pages are pretty cheap too. Overall while I do think bank space should not only be cheaper, but also that there should be more pages, neither of those things seem to be an issue if you have one class that isn't in the endgame yet.

Professions:
Around the time I did Maltic's Well, I got my first daily objective, which was to gather 40 fish. So I went and got a fishing rod and completed it without much of an issue. The reward was pretty good too; I got a lot of new gear I could use. That's right - I felt rewarded after doing professions. If I remember (I tend to ignore daily objectives for some reason), I probably will keep doing gathering and crafting objectives throughout my playthrough. It's gonna be odd going back to Ragni and Detlas constantly for them once I'm high-leveled though.

As for any other aspect of gathering/crafting? Absolutely not. Gathering is relaxing for the first 20-40 levels and getting materials for crafting is fine for the first 20 crafting levels to but beyond that? No way. I honestly can't imagine new players enjoying this, thank goodness there seems to be an emphasis that this is optional. I know people have suggested having a quest to explain professions, but beyond Underwater and Mushroom Man sorta introducing gathering, there shouldn't be anything like this until profs are drastically overhauled. Profs are cool in theory but they just aren't for a game like Wynncraft in their current state. Hell, I feel like the prof community even has stockholm syndrome.

But this is a topic for another day. Back to the playthrough.

Stable Story & Horses:
Thank goodness they changed the level requirement for this quest. Having a horse at this stage in the game is awesome and encourages me to travel around for fun a lot more. The quest itself is pretty basic apart from a boss fight I liked, but man is it messed up. Having a bunch of warrior cows standing upright is weird enough, and honestly drifts too much into random = funny territory for me a bit too much, but Etus the Blind is a horrifying boss. A humanoid cow with their eyes gouged out is more terrifying than anything associated with the decay or corruption.

One final note: the horse gambling system should have a warning on how horse breeding rates work. Some poor kid is gonna waste their money on this.

Spoiler: INFESTED PIT

Arachnid's Ascent:
A recent update changed the location that this quest starts in, and personally I like it! I'm pretty sure the change was done so that new players could find the dungeon more easily, which is something I don't have a problem with. You now start at the Savannah and have to take this new road that leads straight to Nivla. Along the way some mobs spawn that you can fight or run away from, and some interesting landmarks like that eco cave/tower can distract you. I feel like this is actually a good way to show new players that there is a lot of cool stuff out in the wilderness.

The other half of the quest, where you ascend Mt. Wynn, is something I've done so many times that I can't tell if it's exciting to new players or not anymore. I thought it was cool when I first did it, so maybe. The reward though is what really shines. You unlock fast travel from the Savannah to the Infested Pit entrance, which I love. It makes the dungeon feel a lot closer to Detlas (IMO a majority of players wouldn't have reached Nemract yet. This reward is also quite cool for another reason I'll talk about shortly.

EDIT: The fast travel system is pretty weird and definitely crosses into the territory of immersion-breaking. Talking to a guy with a wagon or something would make more sense for fast travel here.

Infested Pit:
This dungeon is so much better than Decrepit Sewers! Sure, it doesn't quite reach the heights of later dungeons (I think), and it basically consists only of killing mobs, then parkour, then repeat, but those slaying and parkour segments are way more unique and flavorful. At this point of the game they felt tense too - the token rooms have swarms of mobs and as a mage I was in some tough situations, but teleport was pretty helpful here. I can see these rooms being quite challenging on level <21 archer playthrough. I actually DIED in the second token room because so many mobs had spawned in the second part. Keep in mind that my "build" sucked at this point. I had thrown out my Theoriac and Ancient Wand in exchange for items that were a higher level like Kelight's Toothbrush. I did this partially because it's something that I think a new player would do and also because I am an idiot.

I had used up my only key on that run, so had to either head to the market (the market is so convenient btw) or find a new guardian. And this is where the savannah shortcut comes into play: Infested Pit key guardians spawn all the time near Ternaves! However I didn't even need to go there: one spawned not far from the dungeon entrance.

The second run of the Infested Pit went a lot better, although my health did get a bit low during the Arakadicus fight. As far as I could tell (I may be incorrect since I didn't truly test it) an infinite amount of spider minions will spawn until you temporarily break the statue. Overall I feel like this feature is fair (archers can probably destroy it faster than other classes to make up for the lack of bomb arrow at this point) but it's boring. It's basically a glorified way of having minions in the fight. Having to hold pressure plates to stop minions from spawning, as opposed to killing a passive mob, was a lot more interesting to me.

Overall, Infested Pit is better than the previous dungeon, but it still just feels average to me. The only notable part was what seemed like an increase of difficulty, which I think is welcome.

Other Thoughts:
- I now have like 5 quests available and a lot of the at-level map left to explore. There sure is a lot of early-game stuff to do.
- Money hasn't been an issue at all so far, I think I've only spend 1EB on stuff total if I had to guess, excluding identification costs.
- If you skip discoveries, the lore so far just seems like "oh yeah you're fighting against some force of evil that turns people into monsters". It would be nice if we got more twain-level stuff early on but that would be really hard to incorporate given how fast the early game is, and it makes sense to focus more on tutorials I suppose.

 

I think it'd be a good idea to add post links to the original post which bring you to the other parts of the text

 

I honestly dislike this one. Other than gameplay, I do not see the reason for it existing.
From middle of the black road right to the entrance of a dungeon? Why?

 

Oh yeah, I'll add that!

I can somewhat agree, it does feel pretty strange, I guess it could be a long underground cave but walking through one of those would take the same time as walking down a normal road.

Now that I think about it, I feel like adding a wagon or something rather than a cave would be far more immersive and would make enough sense.

 

"wagon that takes you from a random spit after Detlas to some place inside Nivla Forest" still doesn't cut it for me, sorry. Still better than a tunnel though, true.

There just isn't really a reason for it imo outside gameplay. From Nemract, Ragni, maybe Maltic or even Detlas yes, that could work, but not from there.

 

Love this thread. Keep going!