Hey,

I quit Vanguard in Feb this year since I burned myself out of this game... just wasn't much left to do since I just played too much : ))

I actually didn't think I would consider a comeback when I left Vanguard... but it's hard or actually nearly impossible to find a game that even comes close to the PvE and community Vanguard offers >< Hardly ever had such positive memories of a MMO, even after playing pretty much any game for the last 8 years : )
 

So how is the level 50-55 content doing? I heared the new gear, spells and levels required A LOT of grinding when they first released the new content... but I also heared that they changed this... so how is the grindsituation nowadays of the new stuff? How long would it take me to get my toon from 50 to 55 with all the new spells?

How much of a challenge is the new 55 content? For both, raiding and grouping (compared to the 50 content there was).

How's the population compared to the beginning of this year?

Is it in general worth coming back, and why?

Any answere is appreciated, thanks in advance : )

Man, I really had to answer this for you, as I too had came back for the new grind your ass off for faction content, and too be very honest with you, no its not worth coming back to.

A lot of folks on this site who love that old grind "A" mob for a "chance" of getting a reward (you have to pay for to open) is best thing since sliced bread, but its not. I would say wait until they put in the Pankor, Stiirhad and the other "non" faction grinding content that could possibly give a "rewarding" reward (as of now none of the content really does this, not even PoTA).

To answer your question, if you were bored as hell in February then more than likely, it will happen again with this game ( to me the "FUN" of the game was at lower levels  (5-35) and APW after that you are twittling thumbs, and looking for groups to grind faction to get a foot in the door of a dungeon or for gear. The devs should totally redo the dynamic of this (non faction APW type quests or progressive lines, again with out the faction) "leave that for the racial and lore aspect of the game". 

Hey,

thanks for your reply!

Yes, I as well had most fun at my mid level journey... APW too was a great experience...

The big break for me came with KDQ/SOD... the difficulty was alright, the factiongrind however, was just sad... especially since the reward wasn't ever worth all the trouble you went through to max out your faction... but on the other hand, you really wanted to get these small improvements anyway, since it were rewards you couldn't get in any other way... >.< there were no alternatives to them... like the passive buff, the stat backpack, the charm for non-IoD players, etc... all small improvements, but all together made up quite a difference anyway... so no real choice other than joining the massive grind if you wanted to be on par with other players...

I was hoping Vanguard got rid of this "new direction" they went with KDQ/SOD... was hoping for a new APW like raiddungeon, or a new single-group challenge, like the griffonquest was when you went through it for the first time...

But if you now tell me that ALL the new stuff requires another insane faction grind... then I'm indeed going to wait just a little bit longer with my comeback...

Last question though: how's the population nowadays compared to a half year ago?

 I had tons of fun in this game.  Good to see it still has a following.  

I'm on Seradon and I can say population is pretty decent there. I agree with Nergle with his post though, if you were bored back in February with the KDQ and SOD crap dynamic you will be if you sub now. Hopefully, the next batch of quest content and rewards will be better than what we currently have for level 50-55 when Pankor and Stiirhad is put in.

Nergle took the words right out of my mouth. Nothing content-wise has changed as far as direction is concerned. The major additions of SoD/KDQ and Pota have followed the same track (time invested = difficulty) which is a joke. They are adding in that hilsbury dungeon, but 9 times out of 10, it will follow suit of what the Virak dungeon did. It won't overtake Pota gear and it will be a side fix, but nothing premier. No new raid dungeons are coming (I don't consider HoSs as a dungeon). So to be honest, it'll be different if you quit in the first year then I could say its different, but from Feb to now, its still the same game when you look at content.

I actually really like Vi'Rak.  That's a good example of how they can revamp an existing dungeon for a high level adventuring area.  It's group content, but can also be done in raid configuration to include a few extra folks.  It's an old fashioned dungeon crawl type feel, with named and mini-named spawns and some of the very best gear in the game.  Either through a random named drop or via the quest component route.

With that, PotA, SoD, Troll's Coast, overlands bosses, etc. there is still a lot to do without burning out on one particular area.

That said, outside of HoSS and AAs... the best thing they could possible do is move up work on Stirhaad and create another Ancient Port Warehouse type of experience for players.  Even a lot of people that bash VG will say Ancient Port Warehouse is one of the best, if not the best, raiding experiences in any MMO.  They would do well to replicate that.