If there’s one game i’d like to put a small focus on besides ESO this summer, it is Blade&Soul. Yesterday marked the release of a new class, the Soul Fighter, so i went ahead and created one, as i imagine it might just be the class i’ve been waiting for, being a “hybrid” of ranged and melee fighting, not too difficult but still interesting to play.
What i’m looking forward to in Blade&Soul:
- playing the Soul Fighter Class
- the story
- the setting
- the fun gameplay
- compatibility with the expected summer playstyle: shorter and rarer sessions, the ability to dip in and out of the game quickly
I don’t know if the last thing is really true, i’ve read that the leveling experience is on the lengthy side of things, but i guess i’ll see about that.
Second first impressions
If anything, not much has changed since i gave my first impressions. I still like the combat and the zone design while still thinking this is just a mainstay MMORPG for those who like the gamey parts of MMOs- it’s not much of a world. As with Aion, right now there’s a tunnel syndrome, as you’re questing from hub to hub. Take all this with a grain of salt, though, as my furthest character is level 11, not able to do much in terms of skill tree building, crafting, dungeon running or anything at all. And just like before, some systems are somewhat difficult to get a hold on.
Breakthrough annoyance
Now i know that we’ll basically keep our Hongmoon weapons (granted to us after the tutorial) the whole time while upgrading them. There’ll also be stages where you need a “breakthrough” to advance that weapon further. Upgrading your weapon works by “enchanting” your weapon with other weapon drops and gems that help in the progress, as well. A breakthrough is, from what i understand, a stage where not any weapon will do- you’ll need to get a special one.
The first one i do need is a Stalker Bracer- there are two ways to get a hold of it: first, you’ll get some type of stone by questing in Everdusk that you can then use to spin a wheel of fortune. It will drop Stalker items quite often, but you’ll need that special item to advance your hongmoon weapon. I’m sad to say i only got it once and used it to upgrade my weapon, but before i was at the breakthrough stage- which means i need to get a second one. But that doesn’t seem to be so easy, as those stones are now more difficult to come by (i only know of one daily quest that grants them) and even if i collect a few, i still need to get lucky with the drop. The other way would be to simply buy the weapon from the player market, which is possible, but expensive. I’m sure this is due to the fact that the Soul Fighter is the new hotness, but it comes in at around 25 silver right now- and i have 7. Of course, i do have some of the other classes’ needed weapons, but they only sell for a fraction of that.
Meanwhile, i am ready to move on to the next zone, but i think i’ll need to keep an eye back into Everdusk for that breakthrough armor. It’s a strange system with a lot of RNG involved. I guess i could play another character to Everdusk and see if she’s lucky, but that’s off the cards for now.
Server-wise, i went with Windrest this time around. The experience on the german server wasn’t all too interesting (although one has to note the absence of gold sellers), mainly because there were no other people around to fight the first world boss with. While i’m planning to stay solo it’s still nice to be able to find other people when it’s welcome or needed. And as there’s possibly no chance my ESO guildies would take Blade and Soul up, it’s fine to play on an international server.
Soul fighting
Other than that, i’m slowly getting the hang of game and class- and there is huge fun to be had in Blade and Soul. It’s the one game i’ve experienced where your skill in playing determines the outcome of a fight just as much as your character’s level- B&S can get downright difficult, i’ve learned that already on my Force Master who’s sulking in a cave thinking about a strategy to fight some boss.
The Soul Fighter is a very interesting class- i expected it to be able to switch freely between ranged and melee, but that’s not entirely true. Your standard stance is melee, but you can switch over to ranged at any time. After a while, you’ll switch back to melee. The Soul Fighter is a breeze- when ranged, there’s a convenient AoE damage skill that hits quite hard- on the other hand, in the melee stance there’s a gap closer as well as a counterattack and combos enabling the Soul Fighter to do more damage. It’s fun to play, not too difficult yet still interesting to play as a Soul Fighter, as the “player skill ceiling” seems to be a bit higher than, say, of the Destroyer, which is an easy class to understand but doesn’t offer that much in terms of “easy to learn, hard to master”.
How to get your free character slot voucher
I’ve read that players will get a free character slot with the release of the Soul Fighter but had some trouble in finding out how to get it- it’s simple, but i guess i expected it to get applied automatically when logging in or something. So, all you have to do to claim your free character slot is to get in game, open the ingame store and purchase the character slot voucher for 0 NC coin.
Party Business 