This post is biased to Shades as that's all I play. I dont care that other classes may have issues, this is what affects me and any fun I get from AO as a game.
Endgame options are pretty much BS, BS and BS. Perhaps options like Towers or Tara. See a theme? PVP. We suck at it.
I dont consider myself gimp, either as a player or through equipment but I can get (as soli shade) 2500 AR max. I cant hit soldiers, keepers or fixers unless they're really gimpy, and have trouble with all other classes if they're well equipped and played well. My friendly local Enfo can get 3k AR before MR. What gives?
OK so we're crap at offense lets look at other options.. Defense. I plug in all my defensive spirits, wear lots of +AAD, perk CiB 10, pop DoF, and still get whacked in an instant. Surely we should be close to fixer invulnerability if we perk that way and bias our equipment defensively? Well at least I can heal myself or fire off cocoon. No..
Well yay for 17.4, we get ... nothing. Well, a couple of non class specific options. Where's out back-wear? Where's our Dreadloch weapons? Where's ANY of the stuff on the shade wish-list in our forum? Hello? Is there anyone there?
Why doesnt FC just say BS is for Soldiers, Pet Classes, Keepers and Trox?
Hell I'd even join the masses and level a soldier or keeper if there was an alternative to the linear leveling path and token grind we're forced down if we want to get anywhere.
PVP is so broken it's laughable. Testing in the silo against a fixer, I was able to hit him 40% without DoF. He popped DoF, and now I was able to hit him..... 40%. Lets not forget that every class stands better chance using an AS weapon.
Well I could always just join the fluffies and do RP stuff in game with some of the many "events" that GM's run. Lets see, the last one was a big alien raid in Rome, where the big bad boss in the lagfest was a massive level 200. woo. My other recent encounter with a GM lead to my death (uncloaked me using a /stuck kind of method in the middle of enemies).
Looks like I'm done with AO (again), at least until an EP offers a proper review of content or alternative things to do than SK the same old ways. I've set one of my subscriptions to run for another month just to play with friends while they wait for their subs to expire also. Right now I pretty much just use AO as I would IRC, hardly worth paying for. FC isnt offering me anything. I actually have better memories of AO as a game before SL came out.
GL and HF!
Keea.
220/23 Shade RK2