I'm replaying Wynncraft (AGAIN), here's my thoughts [last updated jan. 22]

Two years ago, I decided to start a fresh wynncraft playthrough and share my thoughts on the game with the community. I tried my best to look at the game from a new player's perspective. Unfortunately, I kinda lost interest with that project.

I've barely played Wynn at all in the past 18 months apart from doing a bit of prof grinding, lootrunning, a few TNA runs, and building on my housing plot. There's a lot of content I've missed out on, like almost every quest from 1.20 onward, most of the lootrun camps, and probably more things I'm forgetting. But lately I've been wanting to get back into Wynncraft, and I figure it's best to start a new class. As soon as I started playing I realized I have a lot of thoughts to share, so I guess this is version 2 of my feedback thread! I won't be giving feedback on every aspect of the game, just its highs and lows. Note that this is all my opinion, and expect some controversy.

(I decided to pick assassin as my class, and I am doing an ironman playthrough for the fun of it, although it does kinda simulate the new player experience too. Currently, I'll be investing into intelligence and defense skill points).

Links to my continued feedback:
Mushroom Man, Professions, Decrepit Sewers
Wynn Plains Questline, Infested Pit

I'll also be reposting these on the Wynn discord's feedback channel.

King's Recruit:
This is actually a great introduction now. Probably the server's best iteration of the quest yet. Tasim and Aledar didn't leave a huge impression on me - they just felt like tutorial helpers. But I didn't dislike them either. The introduction to combat was solid, and activating my first spell was a satisfying power spike. I also really loved the builds right before you enter Ragni's castle, and I think they're a great showcase to newcomers of what the build team can do.

One thing that stood out to me: that loot chest in the tutorial cave has a different design from normal loot chests, maybe it would beneficial to change that?

Enzan's Brother:
In terms of gameplay and story, it's definitely in the bottom quarter of quests for me. Given how quick it is, I didn't mind this, but I worry some people might get the impression that Wynn relies on fetch quests. However, what this quest excels at is guiding the player through the game.

As soon as you enter central Ragni, Tasim gives this quest as a literal beacon to guide you through what might be an otherwise overwhelming city. Upon completing the quest, I was told that someone in Ragni needed help. I opened my questbook (which most newcomers would probably do) to see that the first thing it suggested was Infested Plants, continuing Tasim's storyline. And I also climbed the stairs, giving me a key that would open a cave I just saw. These are three pieces of content that the game is nudging me towards, and this strikes the perfect balance between giving the player freedom and helping to guide them.

Pigman Cave:
I saw this cave on the side of the road while doing Enzan's brother and decided to explore. I like how the chest is clearly visible, giving players a goal that's in sight. This cave was actually harder than I expected: I ended up dying actually, and had to return with the strategy of taking out the ranged pigmen first. I wonder if new players will commonly die here too: I actually don't think it's a problem. This is framed as a side challenge after all, and the rewards were worth the risk. I felt the same way with the "Corrupted Passage" cave.

Also I ended up with a ring named blank. Dunno if that's a guaranteed reward, but I wonder how many people think it's not a name but like an error or something.

Cook Assistant:
I decided I'd do this quest next, and I have to say it's a lot more similar to Enzan's Brother than I remembered. Gameplay is generic and the story is nonexistant, and it mostly feels like it's meant to be a springboard to other content; in this case Infested Plants and the Sewers of Ragni. I do like how the quest beacon guides you to Katoa Ranch, as players being lost here has been an issue for ages.

I'm not sure how to feel about the fact that first two quests players are directed to in Ragni are essentially fetch-quests. I kind of worry that new players won't look forward to quests that much, or might even overlook them considering there are other great sources of XP and loot. However, that isn't too big of an issue considering what The Sewers of Ragni, the next quest I did, had to offer.

Sewers of Ragni:
In terms of gameplay, this is a huge step up from Enzan's Brother and Cook Assistant. It's like a loot cave but with a story, cutscenes, and better atmosphere (not really scary, but it was cool watching Witherhead run around). The dialogue felt a bit unnatural though, with sudden lore dumps and dialogue that felt a bit quippy.

Progression:
In terms of gear progression, I actually think this is an issue in Wynn's earlygame. Leaving Ragni most people will just have 12-17 health and a weak dagger, which I had and it's what led to me dying in the Pigman cave and taking a fair amount of damage in Enzan's brother - this was with Assassin's good base defense too.

However, once I had a full set of armor, a better dagger, and some accessories, the game got effortlessly easy. I don't think I've dropped below 80% health since then and I haven't needed potions. Maybe this will change when I fight Witherhead, but I should have an advantage by then: Thoracic, a chestplate from The Sewers of Ragni that will almost double my melee damage. With a Very Fast dagger, I'm worried that it'll just make the game too easy for the next dozen or so levels, and it will be a decrease in difficulty I didn't really work for. This is potentially a controversial opinion, but I think the item needs to be either nerfed or made more obscure.

On a more positive note, the skill tree is great. I love how you can get a movement spell early, and all the other upgrades felt meaningful.

Multiplayer:
I played for an hour without playerghosts, and the server seemed so dead, even if that's not the truth. I only saw one other person. Then I turned on playerghosts, and it just introduced new problems. People look like they're flyhacking during cutscenes. It's confusing as to whether you can interact with them. If they have playerghosts off, then there's still a barrier to interaction.

EDIT: seconds after posting this thread I saw a person guide someone to a scroll merchant across servers, so maybe playerghosts are better than I thought. Maybe there should be a different cross-server and world-specific chats, along with people only showing up in playerghosts if they have playerghosts turned on themselves? These might make things less confusing.

Misc. Thoughts:

• I'm trying to pay more attention to the lore. I like how it eases players in with a pretty simple concept: you're basically fighting the "nether" and basic minecraft mobs.
• Bob the Zombie feels confusing? Jenprest mentioned a hero named bob, then I go to Ragni and see Bob the Zombie. Wouldn't new players think that this lame level 1 mob is a dead hero for like 40 levels? Seems weird to me.
• Ragni feels great to explore. Not too big, but there's a lot to find.
• The game hasn't directed me towards profs at all, with cook assistant feeling like a one-time thing. Maybe it's for the best, given how flawed they are.

 

THE LEGEND RETURNS! I hope to see what you think of the rest of the game!

 

Great review. i agree with pretty much everything said!

 

I thought this was a really cool idea back when you first started it, looking forward to what comes next!

 

I'm still in the earlygame as it has a lot more to offer than I originally expected it too. Elaborations on specific pieces of content are below, but if you want a TL:DR, here it is: the first ten levels have been (mostly) fantastic.

Poisoning the Pest:
I remember viewing this as one of my least favorite quests, but when I played it this time, I didn't mind it at all. Minimal cutscenes and minimal teleportation to copies of the map made the quest flow really well. Having the farmer be a boss fight felt like a much better conclusion to it.

Infested Plants:
This quest doesn't feel too different from its original iteration. It felt nice to see Tasim established as a recurring character who travels with you, but he didn't do much in this quest. In the end, this quest seems dedicated to eventually guiding players to Detlas, and it accomplishes that with gameplay that's better than enzan's brother/cook assistant. Overall, I still consider this the baseline "eh, it's fine" quest, at least right now.

Alekin:
It's really nice to have a checkpoint on the road to Detlas in the rare event that a player actually dies there. The town is really pretty, especially with its use of armor stands, and it's fun to run and climb around in. Not much else to say, I just think this is a strong addition to the early game.

Mushroom Man:
I was planning on doing Decrepit Sewers as soon as I was done with Infested Plants, but as soon as I saw Tasim with the green quest beacon above him, I knew I had to see what he said. I wonder if this is something other players have experienced; even if Tasim isn't too interesting currently, I wanted to see what happens to him.

The current iteration of Mushroom Man is actually amazing; it's such a great improvement over the original quest. Following Yahya to the mushrooms was a nice touch, but defending the mushrooms was a bit underwhelming considering how weak the spiders were. Tasim didn't do anything either - but I do understand if the technology for that isn't here yet. It would be really cool to see one day though.

Watching Yahya get captured by spiders took me by total surprise. It's the perfect setup to a questline and a great way to guide players to Detlas. Meeting Aledar in the barracks was a huge surprise, but it was great to see him again. In summary, I just had a lot of fun with this quest. It feels like the tutorial has concluded now, and now is the time for my character to become a hero.

Tunnel Trouble:
I still think the tunnel from Ragni to Detlas is a great feature. I'm sure a lot of people would want to finish up Ragni's content after Mushroom Man, and this quest gives them an easy way back. As for the quest itself, I think it's solid. It's cool how players are starting to see some mobs with spells, and the miniboss is much better than the stealth section. If there's one personal gripe I have it's the quest's tone, as Drale suddenly showing up feels like a case of "random = funny", but maybe it's fair since this was never too serious of a quest.

Underwater & Professions:
I have mixed feelings on this quest, so I'll start with what I like. It's cool how this quest (along with Maltic as a whole) gives the player backstory on the villagers. The underwater sequence is cool, but easy with the amount of respiration the helmet gave me. I miss how the old quest had the threat of drowning that provided a challenge.

The highlight of Underwater is its use of professions. Getting 10 gudgeon meat is an activity that will turn people away from profs for good or make them interested in them; and for me it was the former. It felt so tedious after the first node, and while I was on a laggy server, I knew I'd have to deal with a cooldown if I switched. I might try to craft some stuff since I found the rare Luxurious Silk, but for other players who didn't get that drop, I can't blame them for never engaging with professions. It's not this quest's fault, it's profs being deeply flawed as a whole.

Decrepit Sewers:
So far, this has been the low point of my playthrough. This dungeon was built up to be something cool, but all I got was an easier yet more time-consuming loot cave with barriers (there were some above the water in the first mob kill room) and walls restricting movement. Even without 200 health, assassin defense, and high early-game dps, I would've found this dungeon easy (my health never dropped below 85% even at the boss). The only part of the dungeon that engaged me was the parkour. Mobs had very low damage and felt very passive. Witherhead seems to have been nerfed since my last playthrough despite 2.0 raising player power. What's crazy is that if I died here, I would've had to venture out again and find another key to even play this content. Given my negative experience, I don't think I would've even bothered with that.

I apologize if I sound too negative here, but given how all the other content I've done ranged from solid to incredible, this just sticks out as a low point to me. I don't want to critique dungeons as a whole just yet since I recall ones like GG and UR being good (and I haven't event done Timelost Sanctum ever), but I worry that the dungeons as a concept might be a flawed system. It feels like for a greater barrier of entry and more buildup than most other content, I get an experience that does little to stand out from what I've already done. This contrasts heavily with raids, which despite their issues, feel like nothing else in the game and are threatening.

To summarize: dungeons, or at least decrepit sewers, are in need of a rework in my opinion. If that isn't possible, then at least increase mob damage, speed, and/or mob line of sight... although I can understand issues with this due to deaths in dungeons feeling more frustrating.

Misc. Thoughts:

• I'm glad the corrupted admins are still in the game, there deserves to be an easter egg about them.
• The Ability Tree does give me a sense that I'm "building" my character and is also influencing my item choices too.
• The farmland builds around Maltic are so pretty and peaceful-feeling, I love them.
• Maltic's Well was an ok quest.
• I like how a lot of loot caves are off the beaten path, gives me a good reason to explore (although the beacons pretty much ruin that if you use them).

 

I can assure you you will not be disappointed by that. Even if you find one aspect i won't mention due to fear of spoiling it you will at least find another aspect of it amazing. The fact it replaces the abysmally bad lost sanctuary is already enough of a positive.

 

Back with some new feedback, as well as some follow-ups to some stuff I said earlier. I also probably won't be cross-posting these to discord as often out of a fear of spamming that place. Anyway, the main focus here will be on the Wynn Plains Questline.

Difficulty:
I shared my thoughts on the decrepit sewers with the Wynn discord, and the replies pointed out the average newcomer doing the dungeon wouldn't have as good gear or experience with the game as me. Thinking about it, they're correct. I don't know if every newcomer would spam spells while melee attacking, or focus on damage over a bit more health, or try to rapidly kill witherhead before they can finish an arrow storm. Decrepit Sewers is likely easier than I thought. It also makes sense that the dungeon wouldn't be hard given the cost of entry. The dungeon still has some big issues for me, but difficulty is no longer one of them.

In regard to difficulty in general, I did Potion Making at level and the boss actually put up a decent fight. It might even be a bit too hard since I have a well-above average build (found TWO concentrations while completing loot caves near Ragni). Either way, this was a level of difficulty that I enjoyed. I also want to say that I understand that Wynn is more casual, and not something that's built around being difficult like Dark Souls or minecraft CTM maps. If I wanted a hardcore experience, I'd go to those, instead of wishing for Wynncraft to fit standards it shouldn't.

Elemental Exercise:
I don't think I've ever seen a quest revamp as beneficial as this. Elemental Exercise went from a 0/10 to a 7/10 for me. The tutorials seemed very clear to me, and I love how the CT was able to fit a storyline about them. Seeing a corruption attack on a city made the world seem much more immersive (lorewise, not really gameplaywise due to limitations sadly). I'm liking Tasim more than I did at the start of the game too. His timid yet talkative personality contrasts well with who the player character is presented as.

I do have two suggestions for the quest. The attack on Detlas would've benefitted heavily from getting to see soldiers fight undead in the background. From what I've heard, the Hero of Gavel quest (which I've never done I'll admit) does something like that already. Hell, they could even just stumble around the arena like the Taking the Tower NPCs. The other suggestion is adding some mention of CCI, as I've seen some bosses with it, yet it hasn't been explained. Maybe the postquest NPCs could explain it?

Taking the Tower:
Pretty alright quest. It's essentially a tutorial attached to a loot cave, but getting to travel with Aledar made the world feel a bit more authentic. I'm glad that powders were explained, as they feel like one of the less clear features in the game.

Arachnid's Ascent:
I was really looking forward to this quest considering how much buildup there was, and also it was cool that an admiral respected my character now. But in terms of gameplay, I have mixed feelings on how this quest played out.

A lot of it was dedicated to just running from point A to point B, and I just didn't find it interesting at all. The route had these weird level 30 mobs on it despite the quest being level 14, but luckily, they were easily avoidable, as were the other hazards I encountered there. Going to the savannah ended up being completely meaningless, which is pretty annoying. If helping the player find the dungeon was the intention of this, then it could've been done in a much less tedious way IMO. Maybe a caravan could teleport the player to Nivla's entrance, and then a road would guide them the rest of the way. I was also disappointed that choosing between Aledar and Tasim didn't amount to any more than some unique dialogue.

The volcano part was decent, it's like 7 years old now and has actually aged really well, I think. It's no lord of the clock though

Infested Pit
This was a significant step up from Decrepit Sewers. Features such as spider hatchlings and slimeblock parkour were things I hadn't really seen much of - or seen at all so far. A lot of the dungeon was still dedicated to just killing mobs, but the rooms were a bit more interesting. I can't comment on difficulty much, but I will say that I found the boss to be my toughest fight yet, its web spell serving as a counter to my glass cannon build. The standout of the dungeon was how well it incorporated a story. It didn't feel intrusive at all, and it felt like my character had a reason to be fighting giant spiders. It all culminated with Aledar and Tasim joining me in combat, and that was such a great conclusion.

Overall, Infested Pit alleviated a lot of my dislike for dungeons in Wynn, as it shows that when done right, they can work in their current format (although I still dislike dungeon keys). I still have only completed two out of the eleven dungeons though, so my opinion on this part of the game could shift drastically.

Wynn Plains Storyline - Overall Thoughts
When I finished the Infested Pit, I immediately returned to Detlas to talk to Aledar and Tasim. The conversation ensued was one of my favorite parts of this playthrough. Tasim and Aledar are simple characters, but their camaraderie and kindness towards the player made me care about them. When my character actually got drunk aside them, I realized that I was excited to see how their stories continue. :(

From King's Recruit to Infested Pit, the first 20 levels of the game finally have an overarching storyline. Since 2013 people have been asking for a main storyline, but for a while (mainly from 2021 onward) I was dreading the addition of one. Now, I genuinely want a questline that continues throughout the entire game. I'm not sure what secret ingredient made me like the Wynn Plains storyline so much more than RoL, but here are my thoughts as to why:

• It feels like it focuses on the you, the player, being the main character.
• NPCs don't feel intrusive, but you're glad to have them there. Yahya was one of my favorite parts of the questline actually.
• Stakes feel reasonable, and your players feats feel realistic: no "chosen one" stuff.
• No big gaps in the storyline. Since you level up so fast in the earlygame, there were no major breaks between the quests.
• Made me want to learn more about the world of Wynn in general.

Misc. Thoughts:

• Potion Making's fetch quest segment was dull, but I did like the boss quite a bit as I mentioned earlier.
• Made it past three hours on this playthrough before seeing my first highly inappropriate shout. New record? I hate shouts so much.
• I really like how the content book shows players that secret discoveries exist, but only gives them the smallest clues as to where they are.
• I love how lorewise, Aledar and Tasim are essentially leveling up a class too.

 

Those are Zombie Militias and they are more or less the thing you just described. They're kinda pointless imo as if you're underleveled you would want to avoid these and they don't even drop anything unique. They should just have their spawns removed from the Detlas Suburbs imo.

I do agree with most of this, but I kinda like going to the Lava Spring at the start as it gives off feelings of 'oh whats this?' which could then make new players more curious about the place and incentivize them to do the quest centered around it. The trail the player goes down also shows the swampy land of Ancient Nemract which could also make players go 'oh i wonder what that area is about'.

 

Yeah, the quest gave me the world discovery for Ancient Nemract which was pretty cool, but for me that didn't outweigh the cons of the travel segment.