Topic: Where Winds Meet

F2P open world collectathon mmo-lite. I put in around ten hours over the weekend. Pleasantly surprised. The developers Everstone Studio crammed in all the usual side activities you'd find in other open world games from the past twenty years into this game.

Battle pass, pay-to-look-cool, the usual F2P trappings. The collectathoning has DCUO vibes, the gear progression has The Division vibes (gear sets), production values are on the level of Saints Row III or GTA IV. The combat isn't as in-depth as Black Desert Online, but that's fine. So far the music and the unique scenery are the standout portions of this experience (I don't play many games with a Chinese aesthetic).

I appreciate all the nods to Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Kung Fu Hustle, Hero, etc.

I highly recommend you give it a try.

50 hours in. Story campaign half done. Achievements/trophies half done.

Rolling a healer, so Panacea Fan + Soulshade Umbrella. Although my guild doesn't have a tank, so I might switch Panacea Fan to Thundercry Blade (and Soulshade Umbrella) to play a hybrid paladin build. Ivorybloom + Rainwhisper gear sets. Internal arts: Art of Resistance (tank mandatory), Exquisite Scenery (tank optional), Restoring Blossom (healer optional), and Bitter Seasons (universal optional, enemy defense debuff).

Build Theory
The only purpose of using Soulshade Umbrella is for its martial skill, Echoes of a Thousand Plants. The umbrella will constantly heal you plus the team member with the lowest hp while allowing you to attack/tank at the same time. The internal art Art of Resistance is mandatory as it allows the Thundercry Blade's martial art Predator's Shield to have 100% uptime. Exquisite Scenery leans towards a counterstrike style gameplay as it allows Galecloud Cleave activation with zero charge. And Restoring Blossom enhances healing in general.

Quite possibly the best solo build? AoE damage plus AoE passive heals.

Ugh, turns out the Thundercry Blade is a little rough. Slow, probably the worst option in PvP. It also turns off your ability to triple jump, so you're forced to constantly switch to a different weapon every time you want to navigate the world properly. At least Stormbreaker Spear gives you martial skills to draw aggro, grant damage reduction, and stun a single enemy.

100 hours in. I would've popped the platinum trophy earlier this week...if it were possible. Currently the last one-third of the base game is locked behind the solo world eight unlock coming a week from today. Although I only have 80% of the Kaifeng oddities at the moment. Plenty of time between now and then to mop that up.

Easily the best game I never gave money to. That feels a little dirty. I'm compelled to give NetEase at least a little something for publishing this experiment of a game. I've had my eye on that magpie outfit. I'm hoping the world eight unlock will provide an avenue to farm the Flawless Defense armor set.

Currently the only way to get pieces for the set reliably is to purchase the level 56+ Agile Steps weekly gear chests from the jade fish shop. Long time to wait. The AS/FD sets are currently unavailable to farm via the Challenge and Outpost challenge energy system options. I suppose you could run Sword Trials but then you'd have to rely on your teammate's loadouts and boss mechanic competency.

Since I'm a healer/tank hybrid, I'm changing my loadout to Rainwhisper & Flawless Defense / Stormbreaker Spear & Soulshade Umbrella / Bitter Seasons & Rock Solid & Restoring Blossom & Morale Chant. Ivorybloom is arguably better than Rainwhisper, but the bonus is only active while your health is full. Better to have the constant +10% crit damage and crit healing from Rainwhisper always active, even though the additional +15% would never activate with my current loadout.