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Alpha Two Phase II testing is currently taking place five days each week. More information about testing schedule can be found here
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Alpha Two Phase II testing is currently taking place five days each week. More information about testing schedule can be found here
If you have Alpha Two, you can download the game launcher here, and we encourage you to join us on our Official Discord Server for the most up to date testing news.
Just a thought on XP
HeetCrusher
Member, Alpha Two
Was wondering for the XP grind if it needs adjusting a little to accommodate newer players. Like maybe have level 10-20 be similar to 1-10 that ways for new players joining that are not in a guild right off the bat time to explore and enjoin the game. Because if the grind is too much I feel new players will walk away. Now I understand this is an MMO, but most people don't join in a group already. They meet people in game. Just a thought. I want it to grow and be successful but making entry too hard or a grind could be a negative effect.
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Comments
Ashes is definitely an MMO that encourages social interaction, but that doesn’t mean the solo/new player experience should feel punishing. The levels 10–20 range is when players are still deciding if the game is worth their time—so if the pacing feels too grindy or empty during that phase, yeah, it could drive people away before they even see what makes Ashes special.
That said, I think Intrepid is still tuning a lot of the XP pacing based on Alpha 2 feedback. From what we've seen, they want the leveling curve to matter, but also be rewarding and exploration-driven, not just a mob grind. If they can hit that sweet spot where players are constantly discovering things, progressing, and getting pulled into the node system naturally, it’ll be fine.
I’d love to see them maybe add more quest variety or zone events in those early levels to give players more options and reasons to explore at their own pace—even if they're solo.
Great point my friend.
This game isn't for everyone, it's not like other MMOs, it was marketed to be like them which is why there's tons of people here expressing concerns like this. Truth is, you haven't even gotten to the grind, that starts at 25... Leveling is the easy part. If you CHOOSE to go about it alone than it will be harder and slower, and it should be. At no point should it be better to level solo than as a pair or more. It's repetitive for sure, but the combat is pretty fun if you know where to go and how to work in a group it gets more fun and speeds things up. That'll ease up as more systems come online, but the grind will remain. But at least you won't be just mindless killing the same mobs over and over and over and over and over and o...v....e....r.......
The solution isn't to make it easier or faster to level, it's to make it more engaging, challenging, dynamic, and just more fun. More systems to come, maybe it'll balance out.
Totally agree, Ashes isn’t supposed to be easy, it’s supposed to be meaningful. The grind is part of the journey, but with more systems coming, it’ll feel a lot more dynamic. Solo is doable, but this game really shines in group play.
20 days into the game without reading about the game before or watching youtubes/streams. Friend and I just started playing and this is where I am now. Games to easy imo, we need epic+ to be super rare. 1-50k rate for lego for example. Also the XP needed to level everything from players, weapons, crafts, nodes etc. Everything is at least 100x to LOW , the rates need to go up a lot. But with that said, we need more POI/PVE content to grind on to increase the rates.
Granted I did have to find crafters to make my gear, which took almost just as long as it did to farm the mats to make the gear LOL.
But I still think it should be much much much harder to create even a heroic item let alone a epic/lego item. I want OSRS rates / EQ 1 / SWG . Not WoW raid drop rates.
Just my thoughts.
You’re right that the current rates feel too fast and easy, but keep in mind this is Alpha testing. XP, drop rates, and crafting difficulty are intentionally boosted so testers can access content quickly. In the final game, progression will be much slower and rare items will actually be rare, closer to old-school MMOs like EQ or Lineage. Your feedback matches what Intrepid is aiming for at launch.