My Thoughts on Marleybone

Ahoy Mateys!

There has been quite a lot of ruckus in the Pirate101 community since the Marleybone & Aquila test realm was released.  Most of this has been about the difficulty and quantity of dungeons present both in Marleybone and for the quests to actually get into Marleybone.  I have been thinking a lot about this for the past few days, trying to get all my thoughts together before I made a post about it.  Here is what I think.

We get to fight many, many, MANY Armada guys.

Are the dungeons difficult?  Well to be honest, they are.  However, the worlds are supposed to increase in difficulty as you level up, so it makes sense that Marleybone would be more difficult than Mooshu.  Having said that, I do not believe that the dungeons are TOO difficult.  I was able to solo all of the Marleybone main quests on my Witchdoctor.  I have heard people on twitter say you need to farm for better gear to solo, and I didn't. I just used plain Mooshu gear that I have had equipped since I finished Mooshu.

The Laboratoy....Hmm....Are those mechanical birds I spy?

I did die a couple times during various battles, but I have died in every world at least once.  Again, this is part of the game.  You die, you learn from it, you go back and try again. Is it aggravating? Sure it is sometimes.  But it happens.  Like I said, I soloed the whole world, and only died 3 or 4 times. I don't think that is too bad.  There is one dungeon in Mooshu, Khotan, that I still can't solo.  But I don't hear people complaining to Kingsisle about that dungeon being too hard.

On another note, I do think that maybe there should be some changes made to the amount dungeons, and maybe even to the length of some of them.  For example, you need to do 3 separate dungeons before you even make it to Marleybone.  This ends up being 3-4 hours of questing.  And it's one dungeon after another. Some parts of Marleybone are also like this.  One area has 4-5 dungeons right in a row!

Fighting a Battle Angel. These things are tough, but awesome!

Here's the thing. Sometimes I want to log on and quest, but I only have 20-30 minutes.  This isn't enough time to complete a dungeon in Pirate101.  But it is enough time for a few mob fights, or even one boss fight.  It gets aggravating to know I can't continue to make progress because I don't have time to complete so many dungeons.  So maybe some of the dungeons could be shortened or restructured.  I'm sure I'm not the only person who has run into this problem!

In the background, you can see the area that has the Bishop dungeons.

Now that I have told you my thoughts, here are some ideas about how Kingsisle could correct some of these things.

1. Maybe have one dungeon before we get to Marleybone, with a couple smaller quests and boss fights. For example, in the dungeon in Mooshu where we have to collect tea (I think), maybe instead of a dungeon, we could fight some ships and then have one boss fight. I think that would break it up nicely.
2. Maybe Spokes A, B, and C could be smaller boss fights, instead of a couple fights in each one. This would make it go quicker and be less aggravating to people who don't have much time.
3. There is one dungeon in Isle of Fetch that keeps pulling you into one battle after another, without giving you time to heal. I don't know if this is a glitch, but if it isn't, maybe have this happen with 2 battles back to back and then a break to heal in between. Then continue with the other 2 battles.
4. The Wreck of the Victory......Well, call me crazy, but I actually really like this dungeon, minus the glitch with the Admiral Nelson battle not ending.  To me, this is be exactly what the last dungeon of a world should be like.  It does take awhile, but I went in with 4 people and then again solo. It isn't too hard to solo, and soloing takes about half the time.  There is one change that I think should be made here though. I'm not sure if it is a glitch or not, but if you leave this dungeon (flee or die) the whole thing resets and you have to do it over again. Usually when you die in dungeons it saves your progress for 30 minutes. This one didn't do that.

I bet this was beautiful before the Armada destroyed it!

Other than that, I really do think that people need to take a step back and reevaluate their expectations. Kingslisle is an amazing game team, and they do listen to what the players have to say.  If you really think something should be changed, or you have a serious concern or suggestion, you can post it on their forums. Or you can comment in game by using the "Bug Report" option.  There are options to leave comments and ideas, as well as report bugs.  That is what the test realm is all about, getting player feedback.  But just keep in mind that Marleybone is supposed to be more difficult than previous worlds.  Test it out, try to have fun, and politely give Kingsisle constructive criticism. They want to make the game fun and challenging for everyone.

And before I go, here are a few more pictures of Marleybone for your enjoyment. It really is an awesome world!

This place is called Fun Town. From the look of it, I bet it was fun....
....Before the Armada moved in!

A close up view of the lighthouse

Inside the lighthouse!

Thanks for reading! :)  I hope this post made sense, and maybe cleared a few things up for people who haven't gotten to try out Marleybone yet.  Also, please comment and let me know what your point of view is!  I love hearing what other players have to say. Have fun questing! :)