Made it to 45, feel utterly lost and like I understand none of the games systems.
Old school MMO raiding vet, but I just finished reaching level cap and I still feel like I have no idea how to actually play the game or my character. Leveling to cap was fairly straightforward, just follow the lines on the main story. But I feel like there are so many mechanics I know nothing about.
I come from the tab targeting days, big raid window where all 4 groups of players were displayed, multiple hotbars full of skills, but I knew each one of them and what each did, the order to prioritize them, and so forth. Now I've got a single bar where each button casts multiple skills, I feel like I really have 0 idea what each skill does, what ones are good, what ones are bad, or when to use each one. And apparently I'd supposed to set up a macro to run them all, but nothing in game talks about this (I see the macro button, but no explanation) And every video or guide I find talks about 'prioritize this, or you should have that', but none of them actually break it down to put this here, this here, this there, and this there. then click here, here and here. in combat click this and this and that. And from what the game (didn't) teach me I've got no clue how to set it up myself.
I'm supposed to be doing something (or multiple different things) to enhance the gear I get, but aside from stumbling around and clicking a few things at random I have no idea what right or wrong, if I'm wasting materials i should be saving for when i get better gear, or if I'll get tons and i should just blow it all. Theres substance morph, enhance item, manastone, theostone, arcana cards, apparently I actually have stats. I randomly learned this clicking through menus probably 2/3 through leveling, but nothing talked about them, how I even get them, or anything. Pets have a genus insight section that isn't even mentioned, and i have no clue what it does.
Apparently my item level is too low to finish the main story and go to abyss base, but the game has been out 4 days and I go into the dungeon and I already get left behind by people speedrunning to the end so fast i can't even learn what I'm supposed to do, and I'm lucky to just keep up so I don't know how to improve it. And there are seemingly over 9000 difference currencies??? What happened to 100 silver is 1 gold, 100 gold is 1 platinum, and thats it?
Is it possible to actually learn MMO's anymore, or is it just 500 mechanics no one actually understands and everyone just runs around blind?
I don't know if this is just venting frustration, or asking for help. I was excited to get to cap and actually start gearing and dungeons and stuff, but in reality its just left me with no idea what to do because there's so much that's not explained.
EDIT: after reading some peoples advice, it's helped me realize I'm likely feeling so lost because I'm trying to force myself into a style of MMO that really isn't for me just because I want something, and i got drawn in by the hope that this would be it. Long story short, many western and eastern MMO's have significant enough differences that even if they look like they play the same, really don't. TY