I have wanted to love this game, but I can't. It's just tedious. The combat is a horrible button mash fest. Everything else is stellar. The atmosphere is perfect, the quests are fine. But the combat is atrocious. AOC was sooo much better in this area. I've gone back to lotro and won't be renewing my sub. I appreciate TSW and what it's trying to be, but I don't have the time or patience for it. Instead of getting better, things just get worse as you progress. Crafting is a pain in the ass instead of something to look forward to. It seems like tedium and repetition are the games replacement for leveling up due to lack of content. Otherwise, a small area takes forever due to really slow advancement and the intention of keeping players in one area as long as possible. On top of that, there is very little reference to secret societies and all that. TOTALLY dissappointed...

I realyl dont get people having an issue with the combat system in this.

There is no issue with it at all... well for a tab based system that is.. It works just as well as any other tab targeting system. So it uses a build up system but you can mix and match qutie a few different skills and you need to use ones that comliment each other its a good system.. I also cant see how your saying its more of a button mash than age of conan LOL. Dont get me wrong i know liked age of conans combat system but just to pull off one mvoe you could have a combination of 6 buttons and thats just because they reduced it LOL.. So each move would be 1 button then a mash up of six.. So no TSW is less of a key mash up.

How on earth is crafting a pain? Its a very simple system when you look at it very similar to minecraft so nothing complicated and really eash so not a pain at all.

I dont know what you mean about repetition as well or lack of content? This is one of the msot content rich MMORPGs i have played so far especially for a game at launch.

Do you talk to the NPCs about the secret societies at all?

OP did you even read the abilities and combine them so that they have some synergy. Imho, you simply picked the wrong abilities and don't know how to build a proper deck... You do realize that each faction has 12 premade decks you can use to help you understand how build a deck that compliments your abilities? For example, I’m building the Ninja deck currently, and I have nice synergy between stacking penetration when I afflict targets with my shock spell, then I wack em with my sword till they die lol. Granted I’m using a blood passive, but there are similar abilities in elemental. This game is very important in one aspect... YOU ACTUALLY HAVE TO READ. I know this is a tall order for some, but you have to put some time and effort into reading your quests, and reading your abilities. As for the no reference to secret societies, did you even play the game?  Did you try any of the investigation missions? How about a little one I like to call "The Kingsmout Code." Damn I could have sworn the Illuminati were the basis of that quest as they built Kingsmouth. Sorry man, why don't you learn to play the game a bit more and explore and do more than the obvious quests b4 you come and lambaste this game on the forums? Well played sir, well played indeed.

It seems OP want to be hold hands by game (spoon fed todays generation of gamers)and tell him every inch of the way what he must do, ive seen some gameplay videos where people don't have clue what to do. Welcome to new AGE where players can't think for themselfs anymore hehe. I can be wrong and he just don't like the game and then blame the game for it, but to many these days rather blame the game then themselfs.

Interesting, yet on 6/18/12 the OP posted this:

http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/post/5068284

Seems like you've flip flopped rather suddenly, because you certainly seemed happy with the game then - and live is a pretty significant improvement over beta.

I agree, it's absolutely terrible. The game would actually be good if the combat was decent. 

OP, I really wanted to take your post seriously, but then you had to say that your big complaint is with boring combat and you've gone back to LoTRO as if that's an improvement.

TL;DR- OP complains about combat in a MMO, then returns to another MMO with (arguably) worse combat.

I could see how someone wouldn't like the combat based on its mechanics. But if you think combat is bad because it forces you to repeat areas to survive the next one, you're doing it wrong. TSW does punish you for not taking the time to read and think about what you're doing, but if you can do that then combat is as trivially easy as it is in most RPGs that don't have the word "Souls" in their names.

Pick a deck that seems nice, start working toward it, observe how the abilities in the deck work with each other. Don't just pick random abilities, don't just pick the most expensive ones you bought, and so on.

I don't see how age of Conan was any better. You got an overlay with 3 arrows and you "button mashed"

Originally posted by wombat5x5

I have wanted to love this game, but I can't. It's just tedious. The combat is a horrible button mash fest. Everything else is stellar. The atmosphere is perfect, the quests are fine. But the combat is atrocious. AOC was sooo much better in this area. I've gone back to lotro and won't be renewing my sub. I appreciate TSW and what it's trying to be, but I don't have the time or patience for it. Instead of getting better, things just get worse as you progress. Crafting is a pain in the ass instead of something to look forward to. It seems like tedium and repetition are the games replacement for leveling up due to lack of content. Otherwise, a small area takes forever due to really slow advancement and the intention of keeping players in one area as long as possible. On top of that, there is very little reference to secret societies and all that. TOTALLY dissappointed...

Huh ? How is LoTRO or AoC any better ? 

Umm seriously, how does one play a video game in this day in age without mashing buttons ?  

Also reading your past coments makes me wonder what really happened and why you have done a complete 180.

Lotro has so many useless skills you have 5 rows of buttons to mash, AoC was all button mashing all the time. As for crafting ? TSW has one of the more innovative crafting ideas taken from Minecraft.

I dunno i guess i just don't understand your perspective on these issues you seem to have now.

Unfortunately, TSW is a game that is not going to appeal to casual MMO players. It demands too much player effort.

If you're not prepared to put anything into the game, you'll get very little out of it. Not everyone likes spending time hand-crafting their skill decks. Not everyone likes solving puzzles. Many will get put off by the fact that it's difiicult to determine when you can do certain content, because there's no "player level" that guides you and easily tells you when you're over- or underlevelled for a zone.

Players will express their frustration in many ways, but few will admit that they actually prefer the "easymode" of standard themeparks. Some will complain that it's just "mashing 2 buttons". Others will complain when "mashing 2 buttons" is not working anymore. Others will look up all the solutions for the puzzle quests from internet walkthrough's, and wonder what all the fuss was about.

"If you're not enjoying the game, it's the game's fault for not catering to your playstyle."

For those of us that love a bit of a challenge, TSW is a game like no other 

Despite all of the lofty claims that "combat in TSW requires more effort than appeals to the mainstream", I honestly found it too painfully simple and easy in addition to clunky. Either my stats were high enough to faceroll or they weren't. Since most of the skills are essentially copies of one another, during beta I never once felt like any strategy or real thought was required. Especially since I could just slap on a deck, follow the instructions, and faceroll even more lazily.

The combat is just clunky, it's not a skill cap issue. Even the fans, or people who are interested like myself, admit this.

While you are all right to complain of players who blame the game for their own faults, OP never stated just what he dislikes about the combat. There's a ridiculous amount of assumptions going on in this thread. I could just as easily say, "If you're not enjoying the game, it's the players fault instead of the designers for not designing a playable game" to mock you all. But that's not very discussion-worthy, frankly, and we can all do better than that.

Originally posted by Kost

Interesting, yet on 6/18/12 the OP posted this:

http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/post/5068284

Seems like you've flip flopped rather suddenly, because you certainly seemed happy with the game then - and live is a pretty significant improvement over beta.

Nothing strange. The person had a good time at first but once he got the hang of the game and became more familiar with what it has to offer, he realized that it's not to his liking.

Originally posted by Poison_Adele

Despite all of the lofty claims that "combat in TSW requires more effort than appeals to the mainstream", I honestly found it too painfully simple and easy in addition to clunky. Either my stats were high enough to faceroll or they weren't. Since most of the skills are essentially copies of one another, during beta I never once felt like any strategy or real thought was required. Especially since I could just slap on a deck, follow the instructions, and faceroll even more lazily.

The combat is just clunky, it's not a skill cap issue. Even the fans, or people who are interested like myself, admit this.

While you are all right to complain of players who blame the game for their own faults, OP never stated just what he dislikes about the combat. There's a ridiculous amount of assumptions going on in this thread. I could just as easily say, "If you're not enjoying the game, it's the players fault instead of the designers for not designing a playable game" to mock you all. But that's not very discussion-worthy, frankly, and we can all do better than that.

We all like different things thats just the way it is..

I dont find the combat clunky at all and i think it flows really well... matching the skills togeather is also great fun and figuring out what skills to use on certain mobs to kill them is another awesome feature... I just think the combat works really well and I cant see any isseus with it other than its a tab target system.

Originally posted by wombat5x5

I have wanted to love this game, but I can't. It's just tedious. The combat is a horrible button mash fest. Everything else is stellar. The atmosphere is perfect, the quests are fine. But the combat is atrocious. AOC was sooo much better in this area. I've gone back to lotro and won't be renewing my sub. I appreciate TSW and what it's trying to be, but I don't have the time or patience for it. Instead of getting better, things just get worse as you progress. Crafting is a pain in the ass instead of something to look forward to. It seems like tedium and repetition are the games replacement for leveling up due to lack of content. Otherwise, a small area takes forever due to really slow advancement and the intention of keeping players in one area as long as possible. On top of that, there is very little reference to secret societies and all that. TOTALLY dissappointed...

  I found that the combat improved greatly as i got past kingsmouth. More choices, with more interplay of powers. the thing is to build synergies. Skills that work together to increase your overall effectiveness  not just pick the one biggest heal or one biggest damage dealer and mash the button. As far as button mashing goes i'd Say TSW isn't any worse then LoTRO in that respect. Yes as you go forward you have to use some thought as to what skills work best together, and combats do get harder. yes upgrade you weapons, upgrade your talismans and magic items but do so with states that compliment your skills.

  Was able to go back and forth from kingsmouth (solo) to savage coast (group) and do both well enough i did not feel limited to any "small" area to explore. Having a blast, but everyones tastes are different have fun in LoTRo

Originally posted by pierth

OP, I really wanted to take your post seriously, but then you had to say that your big complaint is with boring combat and you've gone back to LoTRO as if that's an improvement.

TL;DR- OP complains about combat in a MMO, then returns to another MMO with (arguably) worse combat.

So by bashing another IP, you expect others to consider your view unbiased and informative? Yah, that's not going to happen.

I played this game for like 2 months in closed beta and soloed all the way to ql10 area with no problem.

But i have to admit that the combat system does suck balls,too tedious,smashing the same 2 or 3 btms is boring no matter in which standard,and the crafting is worse since the rewards from quest are always better than crafted items,there are additional attributes on most quest rewards,makes a ql7 rewarded item better than a ql10 crafted item,dunno if they changed it or not.

The atmosphere is good but its kinda lacking contents,if you play around 2 hours or so a day its hard to not feel boring after 3 months i believe.The ql10 areas are not completed and full of bugs 2 weeks ago dunno if they are still now.Yes there are riddle quests,but you will encounter around 4 -6 riddle quests the entire game which are fun to solve and its not enough to change the fact this game is lacking of contents.

Most of closed beta players think this game needs another half to 1 year before launch,including me,I know their strategy is selling the game first and creating high level contents in the same time while most players are still in the low level area,but since there are not that much of contents even in low level areas and you can gain level very fast even you dont intend to in this game,i doubt this strategy would work this time.

Originally posted by Poison_Adele

Despite all of the lofty claims that "combat in TSW requires more effort than appeals to the mainstream", I honestly found it too painfully simple and easy in addition to clunky. Either my stats were high enough to faceroll or they weren't. Since most of the skills are essentially copies of one another, during beta I never once felt like any strategy or real thought was required. Especially since I could just slap on a deck, follow the instructions, and faceroll even more lazily.

The combat is just clunky, it's not a skill cap issue. Even the fans, or people who are interested like myself, admit this.

While you are all right to complain of players who blame the game for their own faults, OP never stated just what he dislikes about the combat. There's a ridiculous amount of assumptions going on in this thread. I could just as easily say, "If you're not enjoying the game, it's the players fault instead of the designers for not designing a playable game" to mock you all. But that's not very discussion-worthy, frankly, and we can all do better than that.

I think that you are wrong when saying you just "slap on a deck" and faceroll. This is probably do able once you have a lot of AP collected but in the early to mid game you still have to use your brain to see what abilities compliment eachother and think a bit about what you are doing. Most of the deck abilities are located in the outer ring and it takes a long time to unlock most of those, so while people are working towards decks, if they haven't done any work figuring out why the deck is synergised the way it is they will just be slapping random abilities that sound cool into the hotbar until they unlock the ones with the deck.

I even saw folk in chat last night saying things like  " I was working towards X deck but this one weapon is amazing so im just going to use that, screw levelling a second one". They will probably be fine for a few zones then hit a massive brick wall, pop up on the forums saying the game is too hard and then ragequit.

IF I am being honest, the combat mechanics are probobably my leastr favorite aspect of this game.  I have said a few times;I doubt this game will ever be huge as it will only appeal to a certain type of person.  I am good with that.  Taking a look at what is out right now, I have my choice of WoW clones (far to many to name) tiny population (VG, AoC, etc) and absolute rubbish (SWTOR).

I will stick with this game, for with the excellence I have seen elswhere, once I get in to the story, the combat does not even bother me any more I am usually pondering some clue or looking for something and the fighting is just something I have to do to get where i need to be.

Anyway, to each their own but the OP did a poor job of explaining his issue with  the game, and I get the feeling this was probably a troll thread.  We all got bit(ish)

Originally posted by Poison_Adele

Despite all of the lofty claims that "combat in TSW requires more effort than appeals to the mainstream", I honestly found it too painfully simple and easy in addition to clunky.

<snip>

 

If you found combat in TSW "painfully simple", then you're not part of the mainstream. Because I constantly see players dying all around me in open world areas. More so than in any other recent MMO I've played. That is the "mainstream" I'm referring to.