coming back to this game and on a new acc, what happened?

everything is different, i wasnt there when the dark legacy update first happened so this is my 1st time seeing it, i made a new acc to checking out cos after long breaks i like to start over fresh. what happened? i picked warrior class and at lvl 24 i do almost no dmg and i get 0 items while compared to before the update i would at least get half decent items, good enough to kill anything on normal difficulty... did it become a very crafting based game? or a pay to win game ? help me out because the game is unplayable for me as it is right now

 

BP nerfed everything in CE: Farming, harvesting, wisdom, skills, etc. Introduced a ton of bugs (I stopped playing the new quest lines two months ago; will wait for another several releases at least before trying again). They (partially) backed off from some of the bad decisions (even so, they will need to revert or replace other cuts in order to not bleed off 95% of the player base), but are still just experimenting when it comes to "balance" between the classes.

Solo play is strongly discouraged by many of the programming choices.

I only have a baby DK (level 39), so can't speak as an expert, but everything I'm reading on the forum suggests that character type was hit the hardest (at least for PVE; high-end PVP now apparently favors DKs? … PVP is no longer gearless, so bring your toys to the fight).

Crafting now includes enchantment transfers. So you can find an otherwise crap pair of boots, and transfer the near-perfect "increased damage on this item" enchantment to your one-handed sword. (By the way, crafting equipment now uses Glyphs of Power obtained from melting junk equipment … You'll want to sell common [white] junk drops, melt everything else, Improved [green] through Uniques. Oh, and parallel world unique items lost most of their special abilities, so aren't the same primary farming target they used to be.) You can't start transfer crafting until you complete a series of random gear crafts … and you won't have amassed enough GOPs to complete those for the first month or 3.

Platinum lines are more plentiful … when you are lucky enough to drop an item. Most regular mobs don't drop anything but coins. Same for most Guardian (green) and Champion (blue) mobs. Sentinels (purple) and Bosses are still guaranteed to drop something, but the variance between min and max is very wide, so you often drop crap, and usually only a green or blue item. Pay attention to the drop-chances for various equipment qualities … at the levels (Normal, possibly Painful) your tune is likely playing, Legendary (gold) equipment has essentially a 0% drop chance rate.

Daily Challenges have been destroyed. In the name of flexibility, BP put every possible combination of reward (gold, wisdom [badly nerfed at first, both in the Daily Challenges and in loot rewards; now still inadequate, but there's hope they continue to adjust and correct mistakes like this], realm fragments, infernal realm fragments, etc.) x type of activity (harvest, kill, melt, craft) x difficulty level (normal, painful …. infernal, parallel world infernal … parallel world bloodshed) x type of mob (any, champion, sentinel, boss, parallel world boss, etc.) into the rotation. Even if you buy premium, you may have to wade through literally hundreds of combinations before you find one that you want / can possibly complete.

Event grind has escalated the last couple of years. And rewards have been diminished (e.g., the New and Full Moon events now no longer give Runes of Celerity, so … why both playing those events?).

They did add Runes to mob loot drop lists. At first only for Infernal+ difficulty levels, but as of r248, you can (infrequently) drop a rune even in Painful mode.

Gems drop more frequently, but mostly relegated to the first two quality levels. So you'll need to farm a decade or so in order to get to end-game strength.

Or … buy things; gems, runes, jewels.

To answer one of your questions, yes: This is a pay-to-win game, more than ever.

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This has been a long answer, and I've only scratched the surface. I'm stubborn, will stick with the game a while longer, but I can't in good conscience recommend that anyone else either starts or continues in the game.

 

Most efficient way to the top is.

Level up ASAP, you will need high lvl friends that will carry you - purchase some books for XP and then you can just stand at the portal and gain up levels and some high lvl gear. Just don't forget that mobs can have max level +45 from your current level to get XP. Don't even hope to get legendaries during this phase - during my level up I kept a mix of blue and purple items. Try to unlock the enchantment crafting ASAP.

Later you can join Q1 leveling groups or if somebody carries you.

Without getting carried, you are in for a long (and unsatisfying) grind.

At level 100, with your friend group or just randoms go in desert bloodshed, get lvl 140 items (legendary or uniques that have useful base values). Get gems to at least royals which is bare minimum to do anything. As you are war you need to survive mob hits, so put wisdom to armor and resistances, and at least a few items on HP.

Gems and wisdom drop best from boss runs (mostly on merciless). Again, a group will need to carry you. Unfortunately as a war you cannot "hide" your weakness like a ranger can, if you can't survive a hit people will be reluctant to keep you in their group as you will offer neither damage nor tanking ability.

You will notice one common theme: carry. The game is set up so that absolutely everything (item lvl, gem rarity, rune drop and rarity, wisdom drop, XP) scales with difficulty and in the lowest difficulties you get nothing.