I guess the biggest disagreement I have is: In a free game requiring a significant amount of dedication, that kind of commitment is not too appealing. Requiring isn't really an applicable word unless you tie exactly what you think you're getting from a "significant" (arbitrary) amount of dedication. Research can certainly boost your experience but compare it to other MMO's before you call it a time sink. You don't have to plan your jobs whatsoever before like level 12 if not later. You CAN plan earlier, but you won't be ruining your end game character. Think of how much of your total growth was at before you stopped playing and compare it to 900. Pretty much all Acadamy opportunities that give skills that can't be gotten elsewhere are mindless days of working without worry about what you need to work. R1 battle skillups aren't anything to fret about at all. In one days worth of action points you can skill up two rank 1 skills in arena. The early game spirit advantage doesn't seem to be as big of a deal to me as you're making it out to be. In PvE it's negligible, free soul dust is all but worthless and after level 12 it becomes near impossible to consistently tank damage and turtle someone down. The health advantage is hard to argue against, but I don't think it will factor in as much farther down the road. Now I'm not trying to come off as a huge defensive estiah fanboy, but your review seems a little harsh from having played less than 10% of the way to endgame with no coliseum experience. I don't judge WoW based on 10-19 BGs, that's just silly. If you don't enjoy the process of getting to endgame, that's understandable but it's no secret that MMORPGs may have a grind aspect somewhere in them.
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