Returning player: is the new expansion worth coming back, considering my class?

Hello everyone,

I'm considering to come back into the game; I loved this game every time I've got back up on it. My last "serious" playing session was in early 2015 (on AB). I liked it, I went full hardcore for the first time, ever. Then, I had to quit, personal reasons.

Now, I've tried to hop back in game the last year. But the TLE servers seemed.... VERY slow to me. I really didn't enjoy the hard grinding, because there was no satisfaction under it. And the LIVE servers were... very, very different. I wasn't attracted to it, because people said that the Ascension Mechanism was slow and painful (and didn't depend on how much time I spent grinding, people said that somehow the ascension XP has a daily "cap" or something... pardon me if I'm wrong). So, I stopped playing after 1 or 2 weeks, that was enough for me.

Now, I finally have some extra spare time to enjoy a good game like this used to be. I wanted to ask to the devs and/or the community: what is the new expansion going to bring to the game?
And mostly: I used to play Bruiser/Swashbuckler/Conj. Are those classes in the "meta" right now?

Thanks in advance and sorry if I look .. "petty", somehow. I'm just genuinely interested.
And excited.


Have a nice one

Actually, grinding is the Worse. Way. Evar. to level your toon. You do much better questing. If you must grind, then at least try to pick up all the quests that involve the area you plan to be slaughtering and get the extra quest XP.

Another issue is vitality. Were you at full vitality when you were doing your grinding? If not, you still gain XP but even more glacially slow. You can buy vitality potions from the Marketplace, if that is your thing. (I personally alternate between crafting and adventuring so I can renew vitality in whichever one I'm not currently doing).

At level 80 on FG, I love my conjuror, but if you check these forums, you will see people complaining that the pets aren't properly sharing stats. Also complaining that the mage pet is inferior to the scout pet, but that's the way it is on Live also, and I think the scout pet does a bang-up job. Brawlers are tanks, so they're not usually going to be doing earth-shattering DPS. If you play the class competently, then you should have no trouble. I don't play many scouts, so I can't tell you much about swashbucklers, but they aren't T1 DPS.

Meanwhile, back on live, you haven't understood Ascensions. Never go just by "what people said", read up on it (the wiki Ascension page has good info). You have a pool of Guided Ascension... think of it like a special kind of vitality for Ascension levelling. You will end up levelling all four Ascensions to level 15 eventually, so it doesn't matter which one you start with. You want to get each Ascension to level 10 to start.

Pick an Ascension, and speak to the appropriate Ascension trainer in Obulus Frontier. You go back to them every 18 hours to get scrolls of Guided Ascension. These scrolls work like vitality potions, just for Ascensions. In the UI, you can switch between viewing your various types of XP. On the Ascension XP, there's a small number beside it, clicking on it will show that you have X out of 21 million Guided Ascension available. When that goes down to zero, then Ascension isn't levelling any further. You also need to monitor when you get to the next level of Ascension XP... it will show how much you have to have to level up, and when you reach that number you go back and talk to the Ascension trainer.

Once you have access to the Coliseum of Valor, you can go visit the Ascension Trainer Sunspear in there for any Ascension.

As soon as you are adventure level 100, hightail it to the Planes of Prophecy. At the spires there's an NPC with a box beside him that contains your free starter gear for PoP. Equip it! You get vast amount of all kinds of XP in PoP, so this is where you really want to work on levelling Ascensions. It goes very fast, faster than you have Guided Ascension scrolls to refill with. However, as you work through the PoP Signature Questline and the three faction lines, you will get scrolls that automatically raise your current Ascension by 1 level and others that refill Guided Ascension.

Make sure you have good faction with Nye'Calonia in Obulus Frontier, because the Status Merchant sells Tears of Ascension, which give you 21 million Guided Ascension points, which stays at 21 million for 30 minutes, no matter how much Ascension XP you gain in that time, then after thirty minutes Ascension levelling consumes the Guided Ascension as usual.

If you want to keep getting guided books from trainer, keep one under level 10 ( Ascension)

If you’re ready to grind then sure. If you want to play casually at this point I hope you like being a house decorator or something.

But you don't have to grind. I just explained that. PoP quests are the fastest levelling for adventure, crafting, and Ascensions. You can level the Ascensions very quickly in PoP, running instances etc. once you get through the short Sig Quest line.

There is also the Orb of Concentrated Memories and the Hammer of Adept Hands that can be used once a week I think to restore your vitality in adventure and tradeskill respectively. These can be purchased from the loyalty merchants.

Also you can use the chronomage and mentor down so that when questing in levels lower than you are currently, you can still get experience from the content you outleveled already.

Thanks, everyone, for the replies.

I will consider staying.

You have to grind at least one faction to get the off-hand reward. You have to grind coins (around 630ish) to be able to get those (well some are good) runes to put on your gear, have to run the panda lines (doesn't take too long) to get pot/sta/CB up to speed to be able to even be useful in zones. Ascensions have to be obtained and leveled and either bought to max them or wait the good ole research out. The game at this point is not returning friendly at all.. They can by pass doing the epic 2.0 and trying for mythical as its days are pretty much numbered, especially with stuff coming out of guk. The point is.. its not easy getting back into game if you have been gone a number of years.. its not friendly to anyone starting out at just this point.. imho its beginning to become that way because its going down the long slope.. the game has been around forever and may not die off, however its not really producing the amount of revenue it probably needs to, therefore is trying to make people happy that are still in the game and don't put much thought into it about anyone returning or just starting out... free 100 characters don't cut it either.. just the way it is..