Hi.
I just started a 14 day trial, and I have some questions...
I've been playing pretty steadily since Open Beta, and despite not having a character in the 7x range yet I'll offer what answers I can.
I keep reading on the boards that the end-game is basically controlled by bots/farmers, and NCsoft is unable/unwilling to really bring them under control, so lots of high level players are leaving the game in frustration. How bad is the end game? Is it really dying? How much are Castle Sieges and Boss raids ruined? And is Bartz (any other servers?) truly a lost cause?
Depending on the server you decide to play on, the whole farmer/bot thing can be mild to heavy. Certain bosses like Baium are currently heavily farmed, but with Raid boss changes coming in C5 they may be gone by the time you reach the level needed to fight them.
I would really like to play a game that has lots of teaming as early as possible. I read that you really start to team up with other people at like level 20 onward (does this include support characters)? How much is teaming up to do quests (or anything, really) done in this game? (I was shocked when I joined WoW to realize that in that game, you only team in dungeon crawls/raids, and the occassional Elite quest. The vast majority of game time, you solo.) In CoH/CoV, if you wanted to, you could team from the very early levels, all the way until you rerolled. I'd much perfer teaming.
The starter areas are pretty empty right now. So although you can team from the start, most of the time you will solo Levels 1-20. (With the new buffs these will go very fast.) Once you hit L20, first class change and move out of the starter areas you will start to encounter much denser numbers of people. Note this also means that you also have a better chance of running into Griefers and Pkers. (The frequency of their presence is largely server dependent.) Most clans have chars in the 60ish range in general, but good ones will recruit low levels and help them out. (With help levels up to B grade can go pretty fast.)
Which type of magic user is in more demand from teams - offensive or support? Are support characteres expected to be heal-bots only in this game? I'd prefer to mez the enemy with holds/roots/etc if I played a support...
Most of NA is waiting on the final C5 changes to hit...some big changes in balance are supposed to be coming down the pipe then. C5 is live in Korea and already things are being 'rebalanced' as the Koreans respond to the changes.
As for now, there are a lot of 'boxed' buffers/Healers. A live buffer/healer is almost always welcome though.
Nukers are currently the 'overpowered' class, and as such are pve leveling machines with a boxed recharger/buffer. For groups it depends on who your with. Nukers can crowd control w/sleep while healers and buffers are more in demand for melee or mixed parties. In general most nukers seem to solo more until late game or in the dungeons. Then again most nukers right now are rerolls or subclasses and have plenty of money from their 'main' to support their equipment and shots for fast leveling.
I would guess a support character, if unable to find a team, would get xp soloing a lot slower than an offensive caster. But by how much? Is it even worth playing/soloing if a support character can't find a group (log and try again later?)
It's doable, but can be very slow. Not all support classes are good at solo, just better than others. Orc Mystics are the best at it, Bishops probably the least. The rest are somewhere in between those. It isn't a instant end to your night if you don't have a group, but the downtime is definately a factor. (ie Even Bishops have an undead "nuke" but it uses significantly more MP than your heals would per kill. Thankfully, you really don't need a huge 'group' to xp well. You and one other person is usually enough to go out and kill easy mobs at a good clip.
I understand that PK'ing is a problem for new characters. Is the PKing so bad that I really lose entire levels while trying to play this game?
When you die (pk or otherwise) you lose xp. At lower levels this is about 8%. Below L40 this is probably no more than an hours worth of killing. (Dropping any of your equipment is a far, FAR greater problem if it happens.) Unless your dying repeatedly to pkers its a minor blip if anything at all. For some characters need for SP or certain drops means they will intentionally delevel to get what they need. Although the % loss is pretty minor below L60ish you can lose equipment masteries if you go below the level threshhold. (20/40/52/61 etc.) Otherwise you have to lose over 10 levels to lose any skills. (Only an issue if you are intentionally deleveling a big # of levels.)
As for the PK'ers...some servers are worse than others. Most of the time you will only see them in certain areas for short periods of time. (Lots of High levels have lowbie alts...and like to keep them nearby.) Chances are you will see them only occasionally from L20-L40 and above that you will only see reds as part of clan wars. (newbie lands have lots of roaming guards to cut down on pkers in those areas.)
I heard that player avatars from the same race all basically look alike. Is that true at all levels, or just the beginning when nobody can buy different looking armor?
Somewhat true for all levels. You have a choice of gender, face, hair style and hair color and that's about it for the character itself. The higher in levels you go the fewer armor choices you get curently though. There are some 'accessories' which alter you character looks, and more coming. But they are usually fairly expensive.
In practice however, there are enough different races and combinations of looks that the level of 'sameness' never truly stands out.
Do I, as a new player, have a relaistic chance of getting reasonable amounts of gold/adena in later levels without e-baying/multiboxing/botting - because I plan on doing none of those things.
Find a good clan and it's not a huge problem....if your doing everything solo it can be. The money Grind in L2 is the harshest thing you will ever see. It's not impossible to overcome, but you can expect to spend a good portion of time trying to make cash instead of levels.
I think I can play like 2-3 hours a day for like 3-4 days per week. Is that enough to get to the endgame content in a reasonable amount of time? If I don't reach endgame content, would farmers/bots bother me less often?
You can probably do 1-20 easily in about a week or two no problem. Once you run out of the newbie buffs things slow down as it gets harder to get better equipment though. How hard/costly things are depends on your class. Again C5 changes in the pipeline are supposed to make things easier if you have/want to solo.
Seriously though, don't be in such a huge rush to reach the 'endgame'. L2 is not meant to be a big XP rush. Take your time and get used to the game. If you find a clan you like and want to pvp more, they can usually help you level pretty darn fast with buffs and AOE groups and such. Otherwise just getting a group/duo going for the weekend is enough to level fast on its own.
This game is 2 years old - is it too late for a new player to really get into things? I heard clans only recruit at 40+ - do many new players get that high without clan support until then?
Most good clans will recruit any levels. BUT, since gear is so expensive and most clans don't want to waste their time on someone who isn't going to stick with them (or the game!) they will usually only recruit higher level characters since that shows at least a minimum amount of dedication to the game.
For most classes (even the healer/buffers) getting to L40 isn't to bad. It might take more time, but it's not bad compared to the post L40 stuff!
Are the server personality posts current? Hindemith looks cool, and by the post count on the forums, seems really active. It pings well too, which is a plus. :)
Thanx in advance - just trying to figure out as fast as possible whether to start the long learning curve for this game...
(Sorry for the long post - didn't know to make a long post, or lots of little ones...)
The server personality posts are moderately useful. Servers with high populations tend to have a larger complement of PK'ers and bots although they exist on all servers. If anything just browsing the server forums here and on other fan sites is a fair indication of the most vocal players on each server.