Choose My Adventure: Character and comfort levels continue flowing in Tree of Savior

I don’t know whether I really like Tree of Savior yet, but I also have to admit that the dopamine hit of making it from class level 15 to about the middle 30s has done something to me.

I pretty much sat myself down to the game and mainlined it for a lot of Friday and almost all of Saturday, and during that time the hours just sort of disappeared as I got more familiar with the selected Psychokino class and continued to blow up adorable monsters with almost near-impunity – though I also was being engaged just a bit more this time around.

At this point I’m pretty much convinced that the Wizard tree of classes are just artillery pieces in the “glass cannon” MMORPG archetype. The first ability I got, Psychic Pressure, demonstrated some astonishing levels of power almost immediately once I got my head around the fact that I had to hold down the button to cast. The best way I can describe this move is that it’s a button that lets me Tetsuo enemies to death as my character roots her feet in place, holds out her hand, and gibs whatever comes her way; I can even spin my character around in place and aim the damage in whatever direction I choose.

Of course, there were a couple of drawbacks to this assumed new strategy, namely the fact that it drains MP like a school kid slurping Hi-C at lunchtime. In fact – horror of horrors – I actually had to use my MP potions for once. Nine times out of 10, most OARPGs or MMOs that give me MP potions are just wasting my time.

Obviously this meant that my combat strategy had to adjust because burning through MP and potions is just not smart play, so I started to figure out rotations for smaller encounters and saved my later Psychokino moves for boss fights. I began to work out how certain moves interplay with one another when it came to single targets or larger groups of foes, and once I started to get additional AoE effects and strung them together, bosses were absolutely melted. I don’t think I’ve faced a boss monster yet that got more than two attacks off before they succumbed to the power of my open hand.

What helped out this building sense of combat enjoyment is the fact that enemies were transforming into HP sponges before my very eyes. Foes like little menacing onions, bats, or cavern crawlies that would be stupendously squishy in other MMOs came at me with health pools in the thousands. This sounds like a problem except for the fact that it let me use my spells more. Things were still being squashed, but it took a bit more attention to squash them.

It’s probably a good thing that the combat and the class build I’ve got going on kept me going because the story most definitely has not been. I’m finding myself ignoring the quest dialogue almost exclusively save for one pivotal point where my character was anointed a Chosen One, with my focus primarily being on getting to the next fight, the next class level, and the next fun new button to hit. The levels are not arriving quite as fast as they were in the very early stages, but they’re still sliding along, and even certain quest points all but guarantee a specific character level.

As effusive as this all reads, there are a couple of minor annoyances that are kind of cutting me off from that dopamine hit I referenced earlier. One of the bigger issues is the constant need to level up my goddess equipment, which I was just handed over at the very start of the game. I appreciate how Tree of Savior wanted to give me the very best gear from the immediate jump, but at the same time it’s kind of made getting loot completely pointless.

On top of that, I basically have to find a safe spot, stop everything I’m doing, and spend specific currency to upgrade items one by one in a very unpleasant slamming of the gameplay brakes. Even so, I suppose that’s not the worst possible fate I could suffer.

I think another big problem that I’m experiencing is the feeling of loneliness in TOS. There are still folks zipping around, especially in the major hub areas like Kkaipeda, but literally everything I’ve don is by myself, with most of the early maps all but devoid of other players and quest fights forcing me into private little layers of the otherwise multiplayer map. I guess this really shouldn’t come as a surprise considering its Steam numbers, but it’s still a bit of a downer. I really hope I can experience some party play sometime.

Still, this has all been much more entertaining than I expected, or at least there is a juicy enough carrot at the end of the stick that I keep wanting to chase after it. Again, it’s hard to know if fun is being had more than just OARPG-based mental manipulation. But one could argue that’s kind of why you’d want to play this sub-genre of MMOs anyway.

So, as I mentioned, my Psychokino is in the low to mid-30s in terms of its level, and my third class choice comes at class level 45. I am kind of putting the cart before the horse here, but I still think there’s value in asking what my next Wizard class choice should be. So that’s our first poll question.

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This time around there is a second poll, and to veteran players this might seem like a bit of an obvious question, but I thought it’s best to ask anyway.

When I started this journey, one of the myriad goodies my character had in her pockets was an item that gives me 10,000 attribute points. Up until now I didn’t bother to use it, presuming that I would earn these points through regular gameplay, but I never have. Further, I haven’t really felt a need for them whatsoever. Still, perhaps I’m missing something in not taking advantage of the freebie, and 10,000 is a big number. So I pose the question to you all:

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Polling will wrap up at the usual time of 1:00 p.m. EST this Friday, November 24th. Meanwhile, I can keep on playing a bit longer and see if I can’t get closer to that class level watermark I need in order to unlock my third class. I could use the OARPG dopamine.

Welcome to Choose My Adventure, the column in which you join Chris each week as he journeys through mystical lands on fantastic adventures – and you get to decide his fate. Which is good because he can often be a pretty indecisive person unless he’s ordering a burger.