Elsword

You know who tf I am, and if you don't, idec. Game is dead. I’ve been playing Elsword for years, and I’m beyond disappointed with what this game has turned into. I’ve done basically everything the game had to offer up until around 2018, and as someone who actually experienced the older versions of Elsword, I can confidently say the game has fallen off hard. Elsword used to be a game where skill actually mattered. You had to learn your character. You had to learn movement, combos, matchups, catching, positioning, resources, and timing. PvE had grinding, sure, but it still felt like you were playing an actual game. PvP had problems, but there was still a real neutral game and a real difference between someone who knew what they were doing and someone who didn’t. Now? The game is a bloated, pay-to-win mess. The current state of Elsword is ridiculous. If you want to do PvE seriously, you either have to pay to win or play a support character. That’s basically it. If you are not heavily geared, nobody wants you. If you are not bringing some kind of support value, you are useless to most parties. The game has become so obsessed with damage checks and stat requirements that actually being good at the game barely matters anymore. Your knowledge, your mechanics, and your experience mean almost nothing if your gear score is not high enough. And PvP is even worse. If you want to compete in PvP, you have to be pay-to-win. There is no sugarcoating it. Gear, stats, sockets, costumes, accessories, enhancement, and all the other nonsense stacked on top of each other matter way too much. PvP used to have actual skill expression. Now it feels like a joke. You can outplay someone and still lose because they paid more, have better gear, or are playing some overtuned class with absurd tools. That is not competitive. That is not balanced. That is just bad game design. The renewals ruined so much of what made the game fun. Characters lost identity, old playstyles got gutted, and the game became more about spamming massive skills than actually mastering your class. A lot of the older gameplay had depth. You had to think. You had to practice. Now everything feels dumbed down, overpowered, and covered in visual clutter. Half the time it feels like the game is just throwing explosions and invincibility frames everywhere while pretending that counts as gameplay. The amount of power creep is disgusting. Every few years, the game adds another layer of grinding, another system, another stat wall, another reason you are not strong enough yet. Instead of making meaningful content, the game just keeps raising the requirements and pushing players toward spending money. Enhancement, reforging, ERP, titles, accessories, costumes, artifacts, pets, sockets, and all the other garbage systems make the game feel less like an MMO and more like a wallet check. This is not a game that respects your time. It drains it. It does not reward loyalty. It punishes you for not spending. It does not reward skill. It rewards money, class choice, and how much you are willing to tolerate awful progression systems. The saddest part is that Elsword used to be special. The art, the music, the characters, the combat, and the old PvP scene all had real charm. There was a time when this game actually felt alive. There was a time when getting better mattered. There was a time when you could tell who practiced and who didn’t. That version of Elsword is dead. Now NA feels dead, parties are annoying to find, PvP is a gear check, PvE is a damage check, and the entire game feels like it was built around squeezing money out of whoever is still addicted enough to stay. I cannot recommend this game to new players at all. Unless you are ready to swipe, play support, or accept being useless in endgame PvE, don’t bother. And if you care about PvP, don’t even waste your time unless you are willing to pay to win. The game is not fair, it is not balanced, and it is not the skill-based action MMO it used to be. Elsword had something great, and they ruined it. Renewals ruined the gameplay, monetization ruined the progression, power creep ruined the balance, and pay-to-win ruined both PvE and PvP. I loved Elsword for what it was. I hate what it became.