Bless Online – 10 Things You Should Know Before Playing

10 Things You Should Know About Bless Online Before Playing

With Bless Online’s release literally right around the corner, I thought it’d be a good opportunity to do one of these.
I’ve done top 10 videos in the past but never like this. So, with that in mind, I figure now is as good as any time to jump right in.

Bless Online is a PvPvE Game

Bless Online is a PvPvE Game. It is not a PvE game like Final Fantasy XIV where PvP is limited to instances. It is not a PvE game with PvP servers, like World of Warcraft. It is not a PvE game where you equip a specific outfit to PvP like Blade and Soul.
Every server in the game will be fully, completely, 100% unconditionally.. PvPvE. Meaning that upon reaching level 30, you automatically get flagged for PvP and anyone of the opposite faction can kill you.
Open world PvP is targeted exclusively at players of the opposite faction, never your own.
There are other forms of PvP such as arenas, battlegrounds, and finally territory wars – each having varying restrictions on player capacity.
One note though – open world PvP does not scale the player nor their equipment. Instanced PvP does. For example, if you’re level 31 and attack a level 45 player, you’ll remain a level 31 attacking a level 45.
However, entering arenas, battlegrounds and territory wars, your level gets scaled to level 45 to match the other participants.
Overall, players that are level 45 with good gear will be stronger than you but not by such a large margin that it’s fruitless.
One final note though – there is an item called the Peace Declaration that will allow you to disable PvP for a short interval. Repeated use of the item requires purchasing it from a vendor in-game up until level cap, then from the cash shop.

Combat Overhaul

A lot of players that were anticipating Bless back when it was announced had very mixed opinions on the combat system.
It was tab-target, something a lot of people did not want after experiencing TERA, Black Desert and Blade and Soul.
It was also slow, clunky and lacking in flair.
Combat was then announced as one of the main focal points of the rebuild project, the Bless Team aiming to completely overhaul the combat system and make it pleasing for players.
Then, earlier this month, the Bless Team released new class trailers showcasing each of the classes that will be available during Early Access. While we were missing 2, we were shown nonetheless how the remainder will play.
This caused a little stir once players found out the game was still tab-target. But, even so, most players accepted it as the changes we saw were all positive.
The combat seemed much faster, it required swapping between stances to maintain skills and combos, and was definitely flashier.
Although still not action, therefore not something fans of BDO will enjoy, the overhauled combat has left me impressed.

No Player Trading

In an attempt to combat gold selling bots, the Bless Team have opted to disable player trading.
What this means is that if you want to trade something for money – trade an item you got from a dungeon run – pass your friend the weapon that dropped for his class, you can’t.
Black Desert Online did the same thing and players have hated it every day since they realized.
I understand that this is aimed at combating botting but I also know how much I value the ability to trade with people.

No Region Locking

The Bless Team have confirmed that as of right now, there will be no region locking. Meaning players all around the world will be able to partake of the game.
They did however leave a slight cause for concern – at least for me, though, when they pointed out “with the exception of a few places”.
So while right now there are no confirmed regions locked out of playing, there may be down the line.

Class Unavailability At Launch

Much to the dismay of many a player, the Bless Team have confirmed the classes that will be available when the game launches into Early Access tomorrow.
The Berserker, Guardian, Mage, Paladin, and Ranger will all be available once the game releases tomorrow, with the Assassin and Mystic coming with the official launch 3 to 6 months later, and an undisclosed release date for the Warlock.
While unfortunate that we will not have access to the Assassin, Mystic or Warlock, they will come with the eventual commercial release of the game.

Business Model

Bless Online is free to play all around the world.
With their Western launch over to North America and Europe, they opted for a buy to play model instead. This was due to player demand – not a direct choice they made on their own.
One decision they did make was the decision to include a cash shop and premium membership, though.
And before you jump to conclusions, they did go ahead and verify.. most of what would be included in the premium membership, but have yet to reveal exactly what will be made available in the cash shop.
I’ve seen a lot of players talking about the premium membership being pay to win, and I will say that outside of being pay to advance faster, the only thing I can think of that could be argued as pay to win is the increased gold.

  • The listed benefits of premium membership are:
    Premium skins – Purely cosmetic.
    Reduced repair fees – So you save on a little gold.
    Reduced travel fees – Once again saving on a little gold.
    An unbreakable gathering tool – So you don’t need to repair or purchase new ones – this is a quality of life change.
    Unlimited gathering storage – Quality of life change.
    20% increased XP gain from killing monsters, 20% increased XP gained from completing dungeons – Will only help you get to max level faster.
    20% increased gold earned from monster drops – This is one of the problems I can see being problematic as if the monsters drop a large amount of gold I can see players being able to afford better gear through the market place faster than other players.
    An increase in the amount of items you can list in the market place – Allows you to list more items for sale.
    Reduced market tax – Making additional cash off of sales through the market place. I can forsee this being a slight problem as well, especially on larger sales.
    The ability to gain additional Lumena from exchanging dungeon and combat points – The ability to purchase more cash shop items for a reduced fee, essentially. That’s more of a reward than anything.

So, outside of the gold problem, I don’t really see anything being potentially pay to win. Merely pay to advance faster.

Launch Date and Founders Pack Prices

Bless Online has a confirmed Early Access launch date for May 30th, 2018, with players that purchased the Founders Packs being able to jump in 2 days earlier on May 28th.
The Bless Team did point out that they have plans to commercially launch the game within 3-6 months of the Early Access, and that is when they plan on introducing the remaining classes and content that isn’t present in-game right now.
Not including the base game, there are 3 Founder’s Packs available to players. The standard edition – which is $39, the deluxe edition – which is $69, and finally the collector’s edition, which is $149.
The standard edition offers a month premium membership, the deluxe edition offers 2 months premium, bonus ingame currency, and exclusive skins, and the collector’s edition offers a title, 3 months premium membership, bonus ingame currency, and exclusive skins.

Pet Taming

Pet taming is one of the features Neowiz are very proud of with Bless Online, boasting that nearly every single creature within Bless Online is tameable – as either a pet or a mount.
Pets do a variety of things for you such as increasing the amount of experience you get from killing monsters, boosting the amount of gold you get from drops, and increasing the amount of experience you gain per player kill in PvP.
Pets do have a form of stamina though. While summoned, they become fatigued and upon reaching 0, they desummon themselves, triggering a cooldown before they can be summoned again.
I can already see players camping rare spawns of monsters to try and tame them either before anyone else, or to kill them in an attempt to stop other players from owning one.
This happened a lot in WoW and could potentially happen here too.

The Game Has Already Failed

Bless Online has had 3 different iterations so far. The original Korean version of the game that was incomplete, the Russian version of the game that was ported over from the incomplete Korean version, and finally the Japanese version.
The Japanese version has yet to actually “fail” like the other 2, however the Japanese version of the game is also utilizing the overhauled game referred to as “Project Rebuild.”
So, with 3 less than stellar launches thus far, a lot of Neowiz’s future, especially with regards to the MMO genre is riding on how well received the game is over here.
Will history repeat itself, resulting in another, final, failure?

Pay to Win

Finally, what is presumably the most disquieting of points worth mentioning in this video, is the pay to win.
Neowiz and the Bless Team have went on to repeatedly tell players “The game will not be pay to win. At all.” And while a lot of players are more than happy believing them, I still have a few.. I’m gonna go ahead and say modest, here, concerns.
Allow me to elaborate.
Increased gold – I’m of the opinion that offering increased gold, reducing tax paid on auctions that take place through the marketplace, and allowing you to list more items simultaneously will give players with a premium membership a larger surplus of gold.
Gold that can then be spent on gear, or crafting items required for gear. If premium players are given more money, resulting in the faster procurement of gear than people that do not pay for a premium membership, that can be construed as pay to win.
Increased XP – Increased experience isn’t really pay to win in and of itself.. however, if premium players can level to level cap faster, begin running dungeons and raids faster, resulting once again in the procurement of gear faster than people that do not pay..
That can be construed as pay to win.
Now at the same time, that can be considered paying for an advantage, which in fact isn’t pay to win at all, especially since once we’re all max level, and new content is released, we’ll all have access to it at the same speed.
It only affects the game at launch, and thus I don’t believe is truly pay to win.
Gold on the other hand.. I do see that being a very serious problem.

Now, with all of this said and done, I am looking forward to Bless Online. I’m ready to purchase the game for Early Access so both my wife and I can play it.
The overhaul, the features, the look. Everything about the game has kept my interest since Revelation Online bombed and I hope to waste some time on this until Battle for Azeroth launches.

For those of you that want to play with my wife and I, we will be livestreaming Early Access on Youtube on May 29th, at around 1PM-5PM Eastern Daylight Time. So, if you want to join us, you’re more than welcome to! We’ll be rolling Hieron.. probably.

See you all in-game soon.

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