PWI is free to play for one class only: Venomancer, once it gets a Hercules pet.

My main is a lvl 99 and 33% exp venomancer that hasnt done any abusive FCC's. Took me 2 years to grow it to that lvl, with casual playing.

Took me 4 days to raise an archer from lvl 1 to 63 by abusing FCC. Really cut down my apetite in playing the game.

The 2 new classes that came out are heavily dependant on cash shop items, if you try to play them without, they feel broken and stressing. The seeker needs plin gear and the mystic is simply dependant on MP charms. A lvl 90+ mystic burns Burns an MP charm in roughly 30 hours of gameplay. An MP charm costs 1,7-2,0 million coins, and as a free player you can barely manage to get that kind of money at that lvl, by using multiple ways of making money. Hence, cash shop items are a must.

Venomancer remains the only real free class in the game: only requires a decent weapon and can use a multitude of pets. It is possible to get hercules by grinding, but it takes a long time. Even without hercules, you can use *Golem* and be a decent veno.

However, the player population has turned into: 60% cash-shop users 40% free players. Cash-shoppers toy with the free players.

Myeah, i read it all...

My Turn!!!

Based on my PWI experience: 91 sage cleric, 75 veno, 69 barb

and on my Aion Experience: Chinese: 19 sin, 12 sorc, 16 templar; Official EU Aion: 32 Cleric, 29 templar, 38 sorc (shared),

I have to say this:

Early game: both do well, ... but (see graphics section)

Mid game: Aion WINS , because Dungeons(TG @25 and FT+CT @30) begin to unfold and Abyss comes into play, while in PWI i consider mid-game lvls 30-75, which allow you to get airborne and do TT(HH) and... nothing else of great importance?:P Also, in Mid game, the Quests in Aion begin to get more complex and the rewards are blue items, while in PWI quests get complex alright, but the rewards diminish by the level.

End game: Aion 100%, since the Abyss will be the playground and the masterpiece, pvp will have well determined purposes, well organized raids are going to be a common thing and fortresses and the balaur... I won't even begin... also, plenty of elite mobs and super-elite mobs to raid, plus dungeons. Grinding is pretty much cut down in this game, since me, at lvl 32 cleric, have only done 50-60% of my available Quests. PWI opens up the sage-demon path, which means new quests, new skills, and new... GRIND (auch the grind here is getting RED HOT stressing) and yeah, in pvp servers you have fun, while in pve servers you get to do the territory thingies which arent really much, now that I've tasted taking an Aion abyss fortress from the balaur's hands)

One more thing about the endgame: Aion is pvpve, unlike pvp or pve PWI, which really translates into one Aion faction(elyos for ex.) preparing for a week to take a balaur fortress(basically pve) and some surrounding artefacts and ending up practically in a massacre against the asmodians(the other Aion faction) that have seen the scouting of elyos and the early preparations and decided to earn some abyss points with a massive Alliance gank... or... prepare to take an asmodian fortress and have your alliance decimated by the balaur ship.

Graphics: Aion wins, no question about it. Even from lvl 1 (yes, one), you get great looking spell effects, amazing lights and even the tiniest of things you do has some sort of special effect, minor or major, or whatever, the thing is, you notice when you do something. At later levels, the effects get very complex, in some occasions making you not even see the character at all (since I got a cleric, my spells are some of the most spectacular) but by this time, you have set your camera to max distance and won't be bothered by it, you will actually love it: look, that light-coloured--awesome-walking-glowing-thingie is my cleric. The assasins(sins for short) have some neat but not so glowie effects, which alow them to be relatively stealthy even in mid combat, very useful in Abyss, when an enemy can spot you by your spell effects.

Pwi has GREAT graphics, however, amazingly, they require more resouces than Aion's better graphics, so I suppose that's whre that 100million dollars went into. I played PWI since it was launched in 2008 and loved it, got to know it quite well.

In the same time, however, i waited for Aion. There were times when playing PWI, that i found myslef thinking: Who needs Aion, I lovet his game!. So when Aion launched in my country on 25 september, i haven't bought it:P. But my friends did and were blown away... so I said to myself... why not try it out at least? So i got the game, a week after its launch and even if I was skeptic at first, seeing all those graphisc i thought: "great, a graphic game, i bet it sux in all the important aspects", well, i played on, and discovered it wasnt so bad, actually, it was much better, since I didn't get bored, on the contrary, i got involved, mainly because i actually read all the quests info from the NPC's and try to understand what I am doing and why. The chinese version I played was weird, and played it with minimum graphics, meanwhile i got a better video card. I even played on a private server, but that was a pimped out version and didn't satisfy me.

So this is a small resume of my experience in both this games, and I am currently playing Aion 100% and logging sometimes into PWI to say "hi" to my friends, and see if they got some new patches, just for curiosity.

My advice is: stay with the game that makes you feel great, even if it is one of the worst or oldest game ever:P I still play the ancient Heroes III and love every minute of it:)

early game: archers

midgame: archers+clerics

endgame: mages+clerics

overall: venomancers

cheapest+moneymaking: venomancers

most expensive: clerics.

most dmg/hit: mages

most criticals: archers

easiest to play: venomancers then archers

hardest to play: mages+clerics

edit: only real solo-able class, not dependant of a team is venomancer class. Why? It has a pet => has its own mini-team 100% of time.

All this has alot of reasons behind, if you need extensive details, just ask.

wow, obscured, you were in a bad mood when you wrote this.

I've seen you rate this game much better and i know you played enough to have a fair opinion on it. Well, you pretty much trashed it with this post, lol.

Some are simple exagerations, some are simply put into a very dark light, making them grotesque. I can do that too, even if i actualy kind of like the game. (I only love Heroes III game anything else is ... for fun)

I will not take point by point and trash back, because I think you don't deserve that:) I will however advise any people that read this post in hope of getting a clear idea of what this game possibilities are to read other posts and replies made by me regarding this game. I only bring facts from it, I don't customize them. I NEVER BOUGHT ANY ITEMS WITH REAL MONEY in this game and whoa... do I have some nice molded items and TT weapons(4 weapons) simply by using Auction House. Man that's so ... "DUH!". Also... I PLAY 2-4 HOURS MAXIMUM ALMOST EVERY DAY  and i am not a hardcore bad-arse addicted player. At the moment i play mostly Demigod in my free time, if i'm not taking care of my bee trailer(now That's time consuming) - yes i love honey and sell it for nice cash.

Anyway... I would love to see a "patch" of your post in which you take a look on this game from the bright perspective too:). I'd hate to see you persevere in this darkness.

Have fun PWI players^^. Why? Because with this game... you can! .... erm... WE can!

aw aw aw... forgot (this a later edit): I kicked lvl 81 barbarian arse when i was lvl 70, as an inauguration of my acalanatha wand, in like 10 duels or so. A lvl 77 blademaster used to kick my arse previous to 70, but i also upgraded my fox skills so i froze him and nuked magic on his botox. So the game IS balanced but depends ALOT on player style and skills, HOW IT SHOULD BE. Man did i have fun with that barbarian, just outside Frostcovered Grounds FB, he was like... "you are an overpowered clas!!!" i killed him with my Snow Hare, Golem, Sawly(rulz) and Eldergoth Marksman. He thought he was invincible too:) I remember him saying: "stay here and fight like a man" Duh, im a mage class, why would i stay let him hit me!?!? Besides, all venomancers are female characters, how can i fight like a "man". It was fun, trust me, im still smiling remembering that time:)

About grind, i am going to copy/paste something i said in a previous poist and make some adds:

"Grind: comes into scene at lvl 60+, when if you do ALL your current lvl quests you cannot get more than 40% exp for the next lvl. However, there is a repeatable grind quest that gives you a celestial stone and reputation points based on your lvl. And THAT makes your grinding wayyyy easier and profitable, plus that grind is the main cash source in the game. PWI devs aren't stupid here.

Also, 60+ grind, yea, but after 60+ you get to go to Twilight Temple(TT), baby, which is a very hard team based quest in a special location, to kill some hard mobs and the TT bosses for high rewards. The exp gain from those quests is awesome.(period).

What, you still don't like it?

After 75+, you fet to go to Frostland, another special place that gets you even more rare materials and even more exp.

After lvl 60 or so, the characters are developed in such a manner that allows the set up of "zhen" teams: aoe grinding teams: one cleric heals and protects with "bubble", an archer or wizard cast aoe skills in one stationary place, and one barbarian or blademaster lures pack of mobs into that place to get them killed. Ta-da: fast exp. The cost: a charm worth 400k coin, which can be raised in like 3 hours of normal grind or if you zhen properly, the team can almost get back the cost of their charms from the mobs they just killed in the process.

Also, you can participate in other people's FB's, which gives you great exp and reputation.

So yes, grind in this game IS present but you have formidable weapons against it. Don't be lazy, use them. Other games give you squat."

Also, you get to do a quest called "Crazy Stone" every day from lvl 30 to 80 or soemthing, which gives you  xp from 8% to 20%, depending on lvl and CS stage.

Also you get a daily quest after lvl 70 in which you have to travel through the world and get to know the map better + you get a good amount of xp too, comparable to the CS quest i just mentioned.

Also, there are rebirth dungeons, aka rebirth alpha-gamma, where you will get good exp and also some items you cannot get anywhere else. These quests go from lvl 35 i think up to engame.

Also there are items in game that simply give you xp, like scarlet fruits, which can be bought in auction or found at some mobs. You have an excess of cash and need xp?... get some scarlet fruits.

So... like i said... FORMIDABLE weapons against grind. :) therefor, the term : "Korean f2p grindfest" is obsolete.

WoW? Is a legendary game, but all legends are in the past, somehow:). Get it? With PWI, AION, and some other games coming into scene, WoW(Blizzard) will have to make a WoW2 or something else, a new thing, to catch the new generations of players.

So yes, you CAN compare them but they are two very different things, products of 2 generations:

WoW is the golden product of the past generation and PWI is a brand new product of the present generation. Who knows what will be the golden product of this generation? AION? Another game not even in development yet? We'll see.

hi, reply for obscured:)

i believe you play on Lost City server, since it is the heaven of venomancers with phoenixes. its true there are a whole bunch of nixes there, also alot on harshlands. i play on Sanctuary and i see phoenixes pretty rare and almost always in cities, even tho in see alot of venomancers training in various grindspots. So i can only speak for the server i play on.  About the 2 hit phoenix: a barbarian lvl 91, has killed a lvl 88 phoenix in 2 hits. Since the phoenix was 3 lvls lower, lets also take in consideration that a BM for example has higher dmg skills, so he can do same thing too. a clerics plume shot hurts a phoenix like crazy, and also an archer with his crit-spam. i have no idea about a mage, but since its the best DD class in game and that lvl pretty much dominates the scene from damage perspective, i think that even with the very high magic defense, the phoenix is hurt badly by a mage too.

the sage cleric: that is prolly the worst nightmare of any player. in duels he is pretty powerfull: buffs, debuffs, sleep, heals, sparks... you name it... he has it.  A light armor cleric is pretty much a tank. The demon cleric... my guild leader is a demon cleric lvl 90. What can i say, he can duel anyone with confidence in his chances of winning. so you are right, cleric is great at pk.

But then we can also talk about the Ha or LA fox that with the press of one button can turn from a physical tank into a pretty good mage. It has debuff, buffs, the almighty reflect skill, can root an enemy in place for 8 seconds or reduce his accuracy by 70% for 8 seconds, making  a barb fail like crazy and a mb waste his stuns.

Bottom line, im right, youre right, and conclusion: best pk class is the player:) h3h3. period:)

p.s. :::self thaught english, be kind on my mistakes:):::

Has anyone tried to kill a heavy armor fox? No? Try it.

At lvl 73 heavy armor full mage+fox skill tree venomancer i kill archers for breakfast, they do me 200-400 dmg on normal+crit arrow and a big 6-700 dmg on the highest skills. I have 2700 hp, and i could easily get more, and i have only 2 items refined. Fast kill time.

The wizards... i use my robe set in this case and go fox on them asap, because they do 1k dmg on me on skills and 300+ on normal skills... its nice to see them try to kite, they have speed of 4.9 and even with genie holy path they cant evade me, my native is 5.2+spring(enhaced speed buff-10 minutes)+genie + my speed boots  = i catch them up, if i use genie too, im next to them in a blink. Fast kill if i get to them quick, average at best if they kite me using land+fly+genie+apoth.

Clerics: they see my fashion clothes, they asume i use robe and use the phys atack spell they have and by the time they realise its useless, im next to them in fox form and pin them for 7 seconds into place, which is more then enough to kill them. If they try to heal, i use wallop and silence them, giving me time to summon pet if it died or simply spam dmg at them. Overall, fast kill.

Blademasters: they try to use stunlock, always. I use my stun spell then the water dot spell and kite until they go for pet, which they eventualy do, lol. Never seen one that didnt. At that point, reuse stun, use water dot + heal pet + kite. Repeat. never failed me. Simple? Average to slow kill time.

Barbarians: kite/use magic/repeat/dead. Average kill time.

Vemonacers: if they are robe, i use fox and get them fast, before they use a flesh pet on me. If they are fox, i try magic and if i dmg them enough to know they are using heavy armor, i continue, if not, i go fox and go for them. I usually have a fast kill.

Who kills me? Good kiting wizards when im on fox+heavy armor, and good axe blademasters if they stunlock me and ignore my pet completely, also clerics own me asap if i dont have heavy armor. Who never kills me? Barbarians. I killed lvl 86 barbarian in 6 duels in a row.

Note: All killing are duels, since i play a pve server. I do not own a super-pet, i use sawfly, golem, eldergoth marksman and petalii hexiss + some other minor pets. For those that don't know, only one pet can be active at a time. Also, to make a heavy veno, you need extreme equipment and stats stretching. But it is duable and i never spent real money in PWI.

So answer:

1-60:

best pvp: venomancer, bm

70+:

best pvp: archer, bm

90+: 1-light armor wizard, 2-barbarian with good hp, 3-heavy/robe venomancer. Archers come 4th, then bm, then clerics.

That's my opinion.

That's... ridiculous, is like: What is better: a beer or a chocolate?

Yeah, they go down the throat both, but that's where the similarity ends.

My response to this is... Got milk? Cause i play both.

...I wish i could just melt them into one, sometimes.

p.s.: crunchy... leave the bots out of this, they love all games; should we mention the gold buyers in wow? neah...

:).

What they said, except... try it yourself up to lvl 31-32. Then decide. Install/uninstall goes fast and smooth, it will not hurt you, but if you play a free game of this quality, you might become more cautious and selective on choosing a p2p game.

note: the cash shop is not an impediment, just a distraction... don't get distracted:).

This game is f2f and has a cash shop. That means progressively adding content to game as the cash shop is used through time(it is a bussiness after all). So at the moment of this post many items have been introduced from asian versions. Many more will come in time.

Grind? http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/282/view/forums/post/2913180/thread/162030#2913180

Item mall overpowered? http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/282/view/forums/post/2913197/thread/223787#2913197

The game must be considered as it is: a free game with optional payment, so comparing it with a need-to-pay to have + monthly fee game is just silly, in my opinion, ofc.

I think the rating of this game is 8+.

The OP is full of s..tars.

I got a lvl 73 venomancer and bought from players, with cash from quests/grind: super inventory stone, super pet inventory stone, super bank stone, about 5 hp charms, 1 mp charm, double spurred panther, spotted manta, shadow manta, upgrades for the mantas, and a lot of other minor items i dont remember.

All those items are from item mall, and i spent 0 (zero) real money on them and i play about 2-3 hour daily, in the week days, for the last 2-3 months.

This is the first micro payment game i see that doen't overpower completely the one that plays with item mall items.

EVEN IF you spend like 1000$ per month in this game, you still need to play at an extensive amount to really be good. Good, not overpowered.

LOL.

That poppin something guy really got things mixed up. THIS is Perfect World International, not some MY version. Servers are in the united states, both east coast and west coast.

Grind: comes into scene at lvl 60+, when if you do ALL your current lvl quests you cannot get more than 40% exp for the next lvl. However, there is a repeatable grind quest that gives you a celestial stone and reputation points based on your lvl. And THAT makes your grinding wayyyy easier and profitable, plus that grind is the main cash source in the game. PWI devs aren't stupid here.

Also, 60+ grind, yea, but after 60+ you get to go to Twilight Temple(TT), baby, which is a very hard team based quest in a special location, to kill some hard mobs and the TT bosses for high rewards. The exp gain from those quests is awesome.(period).

What, you still don't like it?

After 75+, you fet to go to Frostland, another special place that gets you even more rare materials and even more exp.

After lvl 60 or so, the characters are developed in such a manner that allows the set up of  "zhen" teams: aoe grinding teams: one cleric heals and protects with "bubble", an archer or wizard cast aoe skills in one stationary place, and one barbarian or blademaster lures pack of mobs into that place to get them killed. Ta-da: fast exp. The cost: a charm worth 400k coin, which can be raised in like 3 hours of normal grind or if you zhen properly, the team can almost get back the cost of their charms from the mobs they just killed in the process.

Also, you can participate in other people's FB's, which gives you great exp and reputation.

So yes, grind in this game IS present but you have formidable weapons against it. Don't be lazy, use them. Other games give you squat.

Answer:

I played all characters with various stat builds, and did an extensive search on the pwi, pwi wiki, ecatomb, and other not-to-be-missed sites related of pwi.

Lvl 1-70:

best solo character: venomancer (pve), barbarian(pvp)-because you can resist the gankers.

best party characters: cleric-has indispensable heals and buffs and nice attack(tempest), and barbarian-indispensable tanker if linked with cleric.

best pvp: venomancer, archer.

Lvl 70+:

Best solo character: blademaster(can aoe grind up till lvl 90), venomancer.

best party characters: cleric, barbarian, venomancer(the only character that can<pull>mobs)

best pvp: archer(70+), wizard(80+), barbarian(90+) - need to mention venomancer can restat for any armor combination, becoming a heavy armor magician, after lvl 90+. It can restat at any moment, but its not wise.

Note: Someone said the venomancer can have the phoenix pet which is overpowered. Yes, it is true, but it is also, the most expensive item in game(phoenix egg). Price? The most expensive item in item shop is 30 gold. Phoenix can be obtained by purchasing packs of <phoenix feathers>worth 0.5 gold, each containing 10-50 feathers, randomly(i got a medium of 25 so far) and you need not less than 9999(9thousand 9hundred and 99) feathers to get an egg. That would translate into 100-500 gold(1 gold = 1 u.s. dollar), and i never heard any buyer paying less that 250$.

Conclusion: only like 2%(maybe) of venomancers actually own a phoenix. The phoenix becomes obsolete after lvl 90, when any character can kill it in 2 hits or one hit with a good damage skill. So phoenix is used mainly for fast leveling, duh! and i dont even need it, my venomancer got to 73 without it, just fine.