My UPDATED Honest Review - Is Throne Worth Playing?

Summary

This video provides an updated review of Throne and Liberty, a medieval-themed MMO with a focus on both PVP and PVE content. The game has significantly evolved over the past 10 months, with improvements to its combat system, class dynamics, and balance between casual and hardcore players. While pay-to-win elements exist, free-to-play players can still be competitive. The endgame offers a mix of daily contracts, dungeons, world bosses, and challenge dungeons, providing a dynamic gameplay loop. The video emphasizes the game's progress and addresses common misconceptions based on earlier versions.

Takeaways

• 🎮 Throne and Liberty is an upcoming MMO RPG with both PvP and PvE content, set in an open-world fantasy medieval setting.
• 🆕 The game has undergone significant changes in the last 10 months, making prior impressions and experiences outdated.
• ⚔️ The combat system focuses on tab targeting with optional action combat, and has been revamped twice since release, now offering faster and more dynamic gameplay.
• 🔄 Throne originally focused heavily on PvP, but now includes a strong emphasis on PvE content, making it more accessible to non-hardcore players and smaller guilds.
• 🎯 Gear plays a crucial role in defining your class and playstyle, with no single best-in-slot options. Builds must be carefully crafted, and each has strengths and weaknesses.
• ⛏️ Endgame content revolves around daily quests (contracts), instance dungeons, open-world dungeons, and challenge dungeons, providing a PvE-focused gameplay loop.
• 🗡️ PvP events include World Bosses, Dominion Wars, and GvG content, with key weekly events such as Arc Bosses and castle sieges for guild-based rewards.
• 💸 The game does include pay-to-win elements, where players can buy currency and gear, but free-to-play players can still compete effectively, especially due to the counterplay system between builds.
• 🔧 NCSoft has made efforts to reduce the predatory pay-to-win aspects, but the game still allows significant power boosts through purchases, though these are somewhat gated.
• 📅 Content such as contracts, dungeons, and World Boss events can be stacked to avoid the fear of missing out (FOMO), giving players flexibility in how they engage with the game.

Q & A

What is Throne and Liberty, and what type of game is it?

Throne and Liberty is an open-world fantasy MMO with a medieval theme, focusing on both PvP and PvE content. It uses a weapon-based class system with tab-targeting combat at its core but offers optional action combat.

How has Throne and Liberty evolved since its launch in December 2023?

The game has undergone significant changes, particularly in addressing player feedback. The PvP-only focus has shifted, adding a larger emphasis on PvE content, smaller guilds, and non-hardcore player experiences.

What is the core combat experience in Throne and Liberty, and how has it changed?

Combat in Throne and Liberty evolves with your character's build and power. It starts slower but becomes faster and more dynamic. Recently, NCsoft revamped the combat system to add more movement, utility, damage, and AoE across all weapons.

What are skill specializations, and how do they affect the gameplay?

Skill specializations were introduced with the latest expansion and function similarly to Lost Ark's tripod system. They allow players to enhance and customize their skills, offering more dynamic combat by improving movement, utility, and damage.

How does the game balance between PvP and PvE content?

While PvP remains a core part of the game, PvE content has expanded. Players can now engage in non-PvP activities, including PvE-only boss fights and daily quests, making the game more accessible to PvE-focused players.

What is the game's gear system, and how does it affect combat?

Throne and Liberty has a gear-centric system where your equipment determines your playstyle, strengths, and weaknesses. There is no 'best-in-slot' gear, but rather a rock-paper-scissors system that balances power across different builds.

What is the endgame loop in Throne and Liberty?

The endgame loop consists of daily contracts (quests), instance dungeons, and open-world dungeons. Players grind mobs using tokens from these activities. Additionally, challenge dungeons offer uncapped content with increasing difficulty and leaderboards.

How has PvP evolved in Throne and Liberty since its launch?

PvP now focuses on scheduled events like arc bosses, inter-server PvP, guild-versus-guild (GvG) content, and castle sieges. PvP battles are capped to prevent zerging and allow smaller guilds to participate competitively.

What is the state of the game's monetization system? Is it pay-to-win?

Yes, the game has pay-to-win elements. Players can buy in-game currency to upgrade their gear. However, NCsoft has reduced pay-to-win systems since launch, allowing free-to-play players to compete reasonably well if they join strong guilds.

What life-skilling systems are present in the game?

Throne and Liberty has introduced life-skilling features such as fishing and cooking. These activities provide buffs and materials but are considered side content for now. Both systems have vertical progression with specialized gear.

Outlines

00:00

Introduction and Background on Throne Liberty

05:00

Combat System Revamp and Skill Specializations

10:03

Open World Dungeon and Endgame Content

15:05

PVP and Guild-Based Content

20:06

Life Skills and Pay-to-Win Mechanics

Keywords

💡Throne and Liberty

Throne and Liberty is a major MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) that's the focus of the video. The game has been evolving over the past 10 months and has seen significant changes since its release. The video provides an updated review, discussing its features, gameplay, and overall progress.

💡PVP and PVE

PVP (Player vs. Player) and PVE (Player vs. Environment) are central aspects of Throne and Liberty's gameplay. PVP involves direct competition between players, while PVE focuses on players fighting against computer-controlled enemies. The game offers a mix of both, and the balance between PVP and PVE has been adjusted since its release to cater to different types of players.

💡Weapon-Based Class System

The weapon-based class system in Throne and Liberty allows players to choose any two out of seven weapons, giving them flexibility in defining their character's playstyle. This feature sets it apart from other MMORPGs and is crucial in shaping a player’s experience, as the chosen weapons influence the combat style and role in the game.

💡Tab Targeting and Action Combat

Tab targeting and action combat refer to the combat mechanics in Throne and Liberty. Tab targeting is a system where players select enemies using a tab key or clicking, while action combat involves aiming and attacking in real-time. Throne and Liberty primarily uses tab targeting but also offers optional action combat, allowing players to experience combat in a way that suits their preferences.

💡Endgame Loop

The endgame loop in Throne and Liberty refers to the repetitive, daily or weekly activities players engage in once they reach the endgame content. This includes contracts (daily quests), instance dungeons, open-world dungeon grinding, and challenge dungeons. The endgame loop is designed to provide ongoing challenges and rewards, ensuring that players remain engaged even after reaching high levels.

💡Guilds and Alliances

Guilds and alliances are in-game communities or groups of players who team up for shared goals, such as participating in castle sieges or large-scale battles. In Throne and Liberty, guild-oriented activities were initially a major part of the game, but changes have been made to accommodate smaller or non-hardcore guilds, allowing them to participate in events more meaningfully.

💡Castle Siege

Castle Siege is a pinnacle form of PVP content in Throne and Liberty, where alliances fight to occupy a castle. The defending alliance tries to protect the castle against others, and whoever wins gains significant in-game rewards. Castle Sieges happen every two weeks and are open to all guilds, serving as a highlight of the game's large-scale PVP experiences.

💡Arc Bosses

Arc Bosses are extremely powerful world bosses in Throne and Liberty that spawn once a week. They drop some of the most prestigious and powerful weapons in the game. Arc Boss battles are a significant part of the endgame content and often lead to intense competition between guilds, especially in the PVP-enabled versions of these battles.

💡Pay-to-Win

Pay-to-Win refers to the ability to gain advantages in the game through real-world purchases. In Throne and Liberty, players can purchase the tradable in-game currency, allowing them to buy gear and upgrades, which is why the game is considered pay-to-win. However, the video suggests that while pay-to-win elements exist, free-to-play players can still be competitive if they invest time and effort.

💡Skill Specialization System

The skill specialization system, introduced in the latest Tandria expansion, allows players to enhance and modify their skills in Throne and Liberty. This system works similarly to tripods in Lost Ark and adds more depth to combat by offering more movement, utility, damage, and AOE options for various weapons, making combat more dynamic and faster-paced.

Highlights

Throne and Liberty has undergone major changes in the 10 months since its release, significantly improving the overall gameplay experience.

The game features both PVP and PVE content, with tab targeting combat at its core and optional action combat for players who prefer it.

Players can choose any two out of seven weapons, which creates a unique weapon-based class system, allowing for diverse combat styles.

Throne and Liberty had a lackluster launch in Korea, failing to make it into the top 10 rankings, mainly due to NCSoft’s bad monetization strategies and player discontent.

NCSoft has been on a redemption arc since the game's launch, listening to player feedback and avoiding predatory monetization practices.

The game was initially designed as a PVP-focused experience, but recent updates have added a strong emphasis on PVE content, allowing for solo and casual play.

Zerging, a major issue in the original version, has been reduced and now mostly occurs during specific PVP events, like open-world bosses.

NCSoft has revamped the combat system twice, with the most recent update introducing skill specializations that enhance movement, utility, and AOE damage.

The game’s targeting system remains a pain point for some players, though combat itself improves significantly as players progress and gear up.

Throne and Liberty offers a dynamic build system where gear choices directly impact class strengths and weaknesses, following a rock-paper-scissors style of counters.

Despite pay-to-win elements, free-to-play players can still compete effectively, thanks to a system that emphasizes counter builds and strategic play.

The main endgame loop revolves around daily contracts, dungeons, and open-world dungeon farming, offering both solo and group content.

Challenge dungeons, which function like Mythic+ dungeons in other games, provide uncapped PVE content with leaderboards and rankings for competitive players.

World bosses, especially Arc bosses, provide significant rewards and are a central point for both PVE and PVP competition between guilds and alliances.

Life-skilling, including fishing and cooking, has been added as side content, providing buffs and progression for players who enjoy crafting and gathering.

The game is pay-to-win, but it's less aggressive than other NCSoft titles, and whales cannot become unbeatable raid bosses due to the counter-system in builds.

Castle sieges remain the pinnacle PVP content, allowing guilds to fight for control of castles and reap major rewards in a large-scale open-world battle.

Transcripts

so Throne Liberty is the next major MMO

RPG set to release and it's just around

the corner if you're an MMO Andy let's

be real here you're probably going to

try it especially since it's free in

this video I'm going to be giving you

guys an updated review of the game

because the game has really transformed

in the past 10 months that it's been out

don't forget to like And subscribe if

you do find the video helpful I'm

getting super close to my first major

goal of 100,000 subs and I would appre

appreciate your guys' support on this

also I am streaming on Twitch almost

every single day I'm going to be going

pretty hard into the launch so come

follow me on that platform and let's

begin the

video regardless of what you've seen or

heard from Throne so far know this this

game has undergone insane amounts of

change in the 10 months it's been out

and chances are whatever it is that you

heard or saw is likely outdated yes even

if you have personally played in the

last beta test as far as my experience

goes I've been playing and covering this

game since before it even launched

almost a year ago and I've pretty much

accomplished everything there is to

accomplish in the game including leading

an alliance to win the first and biggest

castle Siege ever I'm proudly sporting

my prestigious first Legion title with

that out the way let's dive into this so

you know exactly what to expect with the

latest version of throne and Liberty so

what is throne and Liberty the tldr it's

an open world fantasy medieval themed

MMO that focuses around both PVP and PVE

content with tab targeting combat at its

core but with optional action combat

Throne is a weapon-based class system

where you can choose any two out of

seven weapons noft released throne in

December 2023 and since then the game

has undergone a multitude of changes and

has transformed significantly since its

start for the better award wor thron had

a pretty lackluster launch in Korea and

never even maintained a top 10 ranking

despite it being NC's new flagship game

before meing on it though keep in mind

that all KR rankings you see are based

off of PC buang numbers and considering

I [ __ ] you not over half of the

population were and almost still are

foreigners the ranking for throne

specifically is not really reflected

accurately compared to all the other KR

games in the ranking that consist of

probably at least 99% Korean players

regardless it still wasn't super popular

in Korea that is a fact and this was

largely in part due to the strike people

were on when it came to NC soft games

because quite frankly they were just

sick of their [ __ ] period bad

monetization and predatory tactics a lot

of creating content creators just bashed

NCA before and after the launch saying

well the same thing people in the west

are saying this for fored NC soft into a

more apologetic we need to win you back

type of vibe and it's been like this

since the start of the game 9 months

later they still maintain this position

and in my personal opinion they've done

a relatively good job not Crossing that

line they previously had in games and

most importantly listening to feedback

in making relatively quick adjustments

based off of it the narrative was it's

only a matter of time before NC soft

makes that move but to give credit where

credit is due they haven't made that

move yet but we'll see tldr noft has

been on their Redemption Arc probably

because their stock price is at an

all-time low Switching gears now

originally thrown was essentially a PVP

only game that really locked you into

Guild oriented activities while the

premier content is still PVP NC soft has

added a huge emphasis on PVE content and

creating better experiences for players

in smaller non-hardcore guilds we'll be

talking about the endgame Loop here in a

bit but you can expect a lot more time

being spent on PVE and yes you can be a

PVE only Andy now zerging was also a

huge issue as the original version did

not really allow smaller or casual

guilds to get things done this also has

changed and now zerging only takes place

during PVP open world bosses which there

are non-pvp World boss options for and

Siege and tax Golem for the most part

which takes place once every 2 weeks

okay let's talk about the combat one of

the biggest points of criticism with

Throne revolved around its combat first

and foremost Throne is a game where your

combat experience will grow and evolve

with your character build and power the

combat that you'll experience early on

will continue to enhance to and through

the end game it will for sure be

significantly slower early on compared

to the endgame recently NC soft has yet

again revamped its combat system now a

second time for those of you who have

played in the most recent beta test

unfortunately you did not have access to

this updated combat skill specialization

is a system recently added to the latest

tandria expansion that effectively works

like tripods in Lost Arc and is

available starting at around level 20

these skill specializations can

completely transform your skill and have

created a much more Dynamic faster paced

combat experience by offering more

movement utility damage and AOE across

all weapons in addition to this NC soft

also added the option to remove camera

smoothing and reduce the inertia while

moving providing a much more responsive

less clunky experience overall though

there are still a few abilities that can

feel a bit heavy and clunky especially

early on but for the most part for a tab

targeting game I feel like the combat is

pretty solid personally I think it's a

lot of fun especially when your build

comes online the bigger issue in my

opinion is the targeting while you do

have a lot of options with Target pry I

still feel like the targeting can feel a

bit off sometimes definitely something

NC needs to clean up on it's often said

that the combat gets better the longer

you play this is largely in part due to

the itemization in throne

this here is probably the biggest reason

why Throne is honestly one of my

favorite MMOs personally in Throne you

have a lot of gear options your gear

will determine you how you play your

class how your class feels what you're

weak to what you're strong to no single

class will be exactly the same and you

will always catch yourself asking what

is this dudes build when coming across a

Juiced character in Throne there is a

massive emphasis on your gear and there

is no best in slot combination it's very

much a rock paper scissors pick your

poison type of system whether you're

maximizing damage or defenses you can't

have it all and your build will always

Excel and lack in some regard for

example maybe you have Juiced damage and

you're strong against melee and range

attacks but it's at the cost of being

slow and weak to Magic on the point of

weaknesses due to the nature of the pick

your poison element in the build you

will never be a walking raid boss no

matter how many dollars you put into the

game you'll always have a counter and

the dollar bill will not be able to

Shield you from everything yes if you're

a whale that has spent $50,000 into this

game and this random freet toop playay

Andy comes and he just happens to be the

build that counters you because you're

weak to Magic and he staff you will get

[ __ ] on kek W the downside to all this

though is if you're someone that doesn't

take interest in builds you will have to

do a little bit of due diligence to find

a build from a reputable person because

it is extremely costly especially if

you're free to play to mess up your

build or choose the wrong one in order

to get a build to come online you'll

need to invest a significant amount of

time and resources to do so so what do

you do in throne in Liberty content is

King tell me about the content in Loop

okay so as mentioned before Throne has

really come a long way and has undergone

a significant amount of changes since

it's launch it's actually kind of funny

to me watching other content creators

trying to tell you about what you do in

Throne or what kind of game Throne is

but they're clearly just echoing what

they've heard from an older version of

Throne clearly not having played it

themselves contrary to what they're

saying Throne is no longer a large scale

PVP only game let me break it down for

you when you reach the end game you'll

have a few main things you'll do on Loop

Plus at least one major war pretty much

every day first you have your contracts

which are your daily quests you'll have

10 of these a day taking you anywhere

from 10 to 20 minutes then you have your

instance dungeons that you'll do about

three times a day depending on the

dungeons you're running this will take

you around 10 to 30 minutes depending on

your group and experience however it can

also take hours if your group is less

geared and less experience completing

contracts and dungeons will not only

give you gear upgrade mats and

experience with dungeons giving you

actual best and Slot gear pieces as well

but it'll also give you open world

dungeon tokens known as Abyssal contract

tokens in game these open world dungeon

tokens are consumed when killing mobs in

the open world dungeons which is the

next endgame activity you'll do open

world dungeons are your BOS content

where you just go in Far mobs every time

you kill a mob you consume your tokens

and when you reach zero you're pretty

much done so yes tldr it's BDO grinding

but limited I do want to add here that

they have improved the open world

dungeon grinds significantly if you've

done it before you get a lot of loot

when you go and you have an option to

grind both Solo or in a party healers

and tanks also don't get the shaft

because loot is equalized for the most

part so DPS doesn't get significantly

more while healers get screwed over like

they do in many games the only

difference between solo and party grind

is that party grind will be

significantly faster and solo grinding

will obviously require a lot more gear

also I should mention that PVP is

enabled at night in game which lasts for

about 20 minutes when it comes to

contracts Dungeons and open world

dungeons all of these have Caps or

limits to how many you can do per day

however you can stack these things and

do them all at once without any

diminishing returns for example you get

10 contracts per day but can stack at

least 6 so you can just knock out all 60

with no loss once every 6 days if you

wish to do so this stacking system

prevents fomo and allows players to just

chill take a break or just do other

things these three things are your main

quote unquote homework content when it

comes to [ __ ] you need to get done to

progress your character in addition to

this you have one form of uncapped

content which are called challenge

dungeons these challenge dungeons are

the Mythic plus dungeons of Throne in

Liberty they are the same endgame

dungeons only they have tiers and

increase in difficulty the higher you go

modifiers are added and increased while

boss patterns change these challenge

dungeons provide runes upon completion

runes being another form of vertical

power that you can equip onto your

weapons on a final note there are also

leader boards in rankings for these

challenge dungeons giving endgame

incentive to PVE Andes to summarize you

pretty much have contracts and dungeons

which will give you open world dungeon

tokens then you burn those tokens in the

open world dungeon then when you finish

that you have the challenge dungeons

that you can do with no limit this is

your main endgame loop it's a PVE Loop

now some of you may be wondering I heard

there were events every hour what about

those these events consist of dominion

Wars which are randomized faction

vaction V faction Wars with an objective

PVE objective based events and World

bosses the Dominion Wars and PVE events

don't really have that much that they

provide anymore and are relatively

lackluster unless ncsoft plans to have

them provide mats linked to the new

artifact system that will be coming out

later I'm hoping they are because the

Dominion Wars itself are quite fun

considering it's a PVP mode where you

get randomly placed on one of three

colored factions and you just kill each

other with an objective World bosses

have PVP and non-pvp versions you get

multiple bosses that spawn at once and

usually the PVP versions will Garner big

Wars between the top guilds and

alliances competing on the server since

these bosses drop important gear so

where does the PVP come in outside of

the world bosses what about the daily

major war content well you have Arc

bosses which are Juiced World bosses

that spawn once a week these guys drop

the absolute strongest weapons that are

extremely expensive and very prestigious

Korea is about to get their third Arc

boss but on global you'll have two in

the beginning both on separate days

these World bosses do have a PVE and PVP

version of them PVE meaning piece no PVP

allowed then you have your gvg stuff

without going too much into detail here

there is a variety of different types of

gvg content for example Rift stones and

moonstones are a 1V one gvg where you

fight for a territory that allows your

guild exclusive access to that

respective World boss and or bonus sheet

step hats every day you also have cross

server gvg content otherwise known as

interserver events each one of these

things take place one to two times a

week spreading out the content so that

pretty much every day there's one major

PVP event not only are these events the

main Premier content of throne and

Liberty but they also give you

significant rewards I mean exclusive

boss farming goes without saying but you

can also get a hefty amount of solent

and Lucent the Cur CES of thrown Liberty

these events do have a cap on how many

players can attend preventing zergs and

allowing for fair gvg fights aside from

all this we of course have the Pinnacle

content of Throne which is the castle

Siege pretty straightforward here the

occupying Alliance will try and defend

their Castle against everyone else

whoever wins the castle Siege will be

rewarded a significant amount of solent

and Lucent this content is completely

open world and any Guild is allowed to

participate there's more to the siege

than the attempt to take the throne

however you also have pillage points

scattered throughout the castle these

pillage points allow any Guild occupying

them to steal from the total solent and

Lucent purse these points allow smaller

guilds and alliances to also have

purpose in The Siege even if they can't

compete for the throne once The Siege is

over the final bit of content is Golem

tax delivery which also rewards players

solent and Lucent this content will have

the occupying Guild attempt to transport

a Golem to their Castle while other

guilds attempt to stop them and steal

these events take place once every other

week finally the last thing on the list

is life Skilling these are new systems

that have been recently implemented

mainly coming in the form of fishing and

cooking the system itself is pretty Bare

Bones and straightforward but it has

been continuing to improve cooking

dishes provide some really important

Buffs you want to run and you have the

option to buy sell and craft these

recipes for yourself fishing is also a

pretty nice laidback feature allowing

you to fish out some pretty nice rewards

including mats for cooking both these

life skills do have gear and vertical

progression to them but they are 100%

side content for now first I want to

start this section by saying that I do

plan on making a more in-depth breakdown

of the pay towin in a separate video so

you can fully understand how it works

but to keep this video from being 17,000

hours long I'm going to keep this

relatively short or try to in general is

it pay to win the answer is yes it's for

sure pay to win how is it pay to win

well you can purchase the tradable

currency in MMO terms you can buy and

spend gold to buy gear and upgrade your

[ __ ] it's about as systematically pay to

win as it can be if you're tolerant to a

certain level of pay towin then you're

probably asking how pay win is it in my

personal opinion I'd say it's a bit less

pay to win than BDO and lost Arc but

it's pretty close it's hard to compare

because in some ways it's more and in

some ways it's less ncys soft has a

strong reputation of adding egregious

pay to win later into their games to the

point where they just die but 10 months

into Throne they have actually reduced

and alleviated the Pay to Win systems

for the most part here's a bulletin

breakdown of the pay to win you can

realistically compete as a free-to-play

player and be very close and overall

power you can realistically reach Max

gear score as a free-to-play player you

can [ __ ] on whales as a free-to-play

player remember as mentioned before

every class has a counter pick your

poison rock paper scissors system whales

cannot be mmax gear slow day one they

are gated on their upgrades keeping the

Gap in power especially early on

manageable when upgrading you need

multiple mats but each upgrade will

require a mat that is not swipeable you

can get the most powerful Ark boss

weapons as a free-to-play player you

just need to join the right Guild we the

players control how we get these weapons

considering all Arc boss weapons go to

the player guilds first you can whale

for the most powerful Arc boss weapons

as well but it will be a while before

you can do so because they are rarely

sold or on and you're waiting for guilds

to sell them most guilds will keep them

within their Guild because your guild is

significantly stronger the more you have

allowing you to effectively Farm more

which is why most people actually say

Ark boss weapons are more Guild to win

than pay to win the cost to swipe for

Capp gear is cheap compared to other

Korean pay to win games by Capp I mean

Max Max Max gear like you can't get any

more power pre- to Landry it costs

around $500 is USD in Korea to min max

if you're going to just swipe for all of

it not including Ark boss weapons Arc

boss weapons go for anywhere from $350

to 1,200 USD in Korea there is a big

fluctuation because there aren't that

many that get listed overall if it's

consistent with Korea it should cost you

anywhere roughly from 1K USD to to 4K

USD to get a fully maxed out full power

character with double Ark boss weapons

on global assuming you're doing the very

bare minimum and you're pretty much

buying everything to add some

perspective here this is the equivalent

of Max quality gear s38 weapon 1010

Stone and lost dark you can't go any

more vertical and that about wraps up

this game review I really wanted to get

an updated review on this game for you

guys because the game really has changed

quite a bit since its start and even

since the beta test as well I know a lot

of you guys are thinking about putting

in a considerable amount of time and and

even money for some riew into this game

and hopefully this game review will help

you with that decision let me know what

you guys think in the comment section

below don't forget to like And subscribe

and come follow me on Twitch I'll be

streaming a lot of Throne Liberty in the

coming days I'll see you guys in the

next video