I just realized that I have been playing Trion’s version of Devilian for nearly an year now (that includes time spent playing in the closed beta test versions). I again need to reiterate I consider it a completely new and different version from the Korean release; something which I didn’t initially know would happen which is why I didn’t take part in the alpha and the first CBT’s.
This version has had plenty of issues yes (both coding wise on the Bluehole Ginno side and game management on Trion World’s side) which I am still planning on posting up a comprehensive writeup for (I have parts of it written up in posts on their official site and in my head from various conversations that have happened in e-mail, Twitter, Twitch and YouTube).
I know the game has lacked serious content (when it comes to actual new areas, new dungeon designs, new features) since the level 56 cap increase (Alvir’s Legacy) which has caused nearly irreparable damage to the games population (especially amongst those who had been playing it since its actual live launch in December 2015). The game has lost its original associate producer who started at Trion when they signed the deal with Bluehole Ginno to be the North American and European publisher, as well as its original community manager; the game has been running with a skeleton crew on the production and community facing sides, adding to this lethargic atmosphere.
I am probably one of the handful of originals who actually purchased an Obsidian Founder’s Pack that is still actively playing. And a lot of that has to do with the fact that I have been pretty much soloing PvE content which when it comes to archdevil dungeons, isn’t exactly trivial. Because of that, my gearing progression has always been slower going. And while I can solo the individual lanes in the Tower of No Return raid dungeon, my main (cannoneer) isn’t quite yet at the point of soloing the dungeon boss (which is why I am working on gearing up my tempest which I know generally has it much easier when it comes to soloing the 50+ archdevils).
With the recent level 58 level cap increase (Bloodstained Legacy), I had to spend some time leveling up my alts which includes my lesser played classes (my berserker is still 54 while my evoker and shadowhunter are 56). For most of the level 56 patch, I spent more time AFKing alts for Patron red-eye rewards (as I did spring for the 6 month sub offer back in May since it included a bunch of no brainer bonuses) than actually playing them. My Patron sub finally expires later this month and with the level 60 cap increase “months” away (as per their live stream comment), this represents a perfect time to let that lapse. And that is in many regards a good thing because with this red-eye system (which is just an adaptation of the PC bang friendly systems used in many Korean MMO’s), you want to just move on to the next character once you’ve completed obtaining those rewards for the character you are on.
For this level 58 update, I rediscovered the fun of gearing up my poorly equipped alts and playing them through the level 53 and higher dungeons that I had never really run them through before (the majority of my alts, I ended up leveling via Abyssal Tower from level 23 onwards). That is also when I popped open the achievements and actually looked through the details for them including my main. I am not a 100% completionist when it comes to achievements but it was something that I would often times pursue while playing Diablo III (especially when I saw literally no need to continue with the greater rift chasing and was looking for other things to do in the game).
For Devilian, I realized just how many I have not even knocked off; many of which have interesting titles (and those titles give minor stats which when you add them all up, amounts to a small but still nice bonus). This small “discovery” gave me a reason to not just focus on the limited end game PvE content. I have a lot of things to do to get my tempest and evoker up to par beyond just using them to grind tower XP for proficiencies and devil souls. I’m sort of putting my shadowhunter and berserker on the backburner for the time being though.
While I am currently sharing artifacts, I am making it a point to level up talismans for each of those alts as opposed to using the ones I have on my main. And once those alts can easily do the current dungeons, obtaining larger quantities of G4+ gems (I already have couple of hundreds for each piling up) is going to be easier where I plan to just craft some basic Alvir’s artifacts for each of them (getting to +4 is really easy and decent enough). I am already sitting on several hundred G4 and G5 gems after using what I needed to get my mains artifacts all up to +6 (the reason I am sitting on those gems rather than selling them is for the level 60 unique gear tier where the weapon has multiple sockets).
Basically, I now have several objectives that will keep me occupied until we finally get to level 60. The above doesn’t even include the much slower Devilian form gear progression which requires boat loads of Kavel’s Tears and even larger sums of enchanting stones (I have several thousand of the base stones but will need at least 5-digit amounts to eventually be able to enchant heroic Devilian gear).
I doubt I will be one of the “last Devilian’s standing” but I have pretty much zero intentions of not seeing the game through until that level 60 cap has been out for awhile. And this is saying something where there have been a multitude of other games (including Diablo III) that have not been able to keep me engaged like this for awhile. I am not and never will be an MMO type of player but this is the first one that has managed to keep me engaged for this long.
Likewise, this is a game that I cannot easily recommend to others given all of the caveats one needs to be aware of (I should not have to fire off a huge list of things that a potential player needs to be aware of beforehand). And that is the unfortunate aspect with this game given how both publisher and developer seem to care very little for addressing the pressing issues that surround it. And I will be touching on a lot of these in subsequent postings.
