I don't disagree on the glut of content/codex etc., but I went into this game blind aside from a few hours in RU to test game play movement/combat and leveling in beta.
The rest I've left completely unspoiled as that's 90% of the fun of a new MMO. No guides, no "how to most efficient", but with the understanding that the #1 best thing I could do is focus on getting a solid alt squad up and I've actually been reading the in game guide quests etc. Standard RTFM. That's literally all I've done that made the biggest impact on my game play as a new player. I have a team of chars that take me ~1 hour a day to pump thousands of gold into my pocket and/or feed whatever character I want to +gooder every day. Aside from the intial character + 2 parts Rohendel/Yorn I've powerpass/knowledge transfered everything else up to Feiton so practically no time wasted doing the other shit everyone has been complaining about as well "the questing".
As for stuff I didn't know? I just realized last week that blood shard purchased stones were tradable so I missed out on a month of that. I've been doing all the Nerias for rapport instead of the ones that give better shit because I though having all the inn waifus was amusing. I have half assed most of unas task despite realizing recently how their progression unlocks further quests/stats/items. I didn't realize harmony/life/honor shards weren't roster bound etc. etc. etc.
Yet none of it overly changed anything because of the core group of alts making up for practically all my ignorance with in game $$$$ which has smoothed out practically everything. Don't have shards? Buy from Maris. Don't have leapstones? Buy from Maris. Don't want to do my Unas? Buy from shop. All funded by that alt squad.
Like everything else in life set yourself up for success to match the goals you want or just get grumpy and shake fist at clouds.
This is me, I didn't even play test shit. Game wasn't even on my radar. No founders edition, no head start, no clue about jack and shit about this games, we're a month in and I am still learning new things everytime I play. I know damn well I haven't been efficient with my time or upgrades. Hell I spent the first few days slowly leveling collecting retard seeds like a complete dipshit. Still learning what currencies do what, what to hold on to, what to spend.
How to use rift shards, what the fuck a chaos rift is, how to share maps, Una's, fucking you name it. There is a goddamn myriad of shit to do in this game for the low cost of fucking zero dollars. I can't think of a better fucking value than that. The turbotards whining and crying like ultrafags about boohoo retard shit like Rob are just fucking worthless in every way. There is so much content in this game you can choose to partake in or not. - So far there is no content released that is so balls grindingly hard that you need to min/max all the unlocks and shit from every aspect of the game. In fact you can play one character and get access to pretty much everything you need. Alt's are just a completion and resource multiplier.
The core of this game which is the combat system is fun as fuck, and even just mindlessly grinding out a couple of chaos dungeons whenever you please is more value than Diablo 3 provided (think rift keys) which cost $50+ expansion money and then the faggots at Bliz abandoned it.
Anyone seeing the 1% gaming crew and want to be a part of it have to put in hours/cash to get there faster but if you wanted to play this game casually it's a full experience that should provide months of entertainment. The shit sucking losers who are big mad they failed their first upgrade on their T1 gear should just fucking quit because they are too much of faggots to enjoy anything. All the islands play out differently to the point some of them might as well be playing a different game or mini game.
I am still way behind just recently hitting T3 on my first character which I am sure I can still optimize like crazy. Not knowing jack and shit about the game put my behind the big cash lotto the absolute bleeding edge people with all their knowledge generated but so fucking what. There is still a glut of fucking content available, there are still so many unknown mechanics, systems, currencies, secrets, islands that I am just scratching the surface. Once I get a feel for one aspect of the game you get introduced to more in depth shit. As you said it's 3 years worth of content and then some since not everything has even been released here in the U.S.
I was going to write up some shit about this game but really anyone who picked this up could probably tell if they were into it or not on the first play through. The combat is fun, that is the core of the game, the raids, and dungeons are fun. The collectables, rapport, gold farms, islands, co-ops, are all extra shit there to widen out the game and prevent it from being completely monotonous, but really you can play this shit for a few hours at a time or like Vold and put 500 hours in the course of 1 month and still not have run out of shit to do.
