It's a long post and there is no TL;DR so please continue at your own risk.
And after much consideration last week I finally decided to cancel my subscription.
Still I thought it might be useful to express the reasons behind my decision and I sincerely hope it gives others a different perspective of the game, either to provide some constructive feedback or simply to enjoy it more over all.
I'm not an SE fan anymore, the reason this is given upfront is because my comments may step on some people's toes and that's really not my intention, hence if you understand where I'm coming from it may be easier to swallow the things I'm going to say.
The main reason I'm leaving the game is because I feel I go one step forward and two steps backward with my character, as a casual player the distance between the hardcore gear and the gear I can get by my lonesome is getting farther and farther apart, not to mention the expiration date vs the time it take to actually get the gear.
Back in August last year when the game started it took me about 6 weeks to get to maximum level and a weapon ilvl 90 which was essentially the best in the game (bar the Allagan weapons which were almost impossible to get, even for the top of the hardcore players) after those 6 weeks I enjoyed the supremacy of that item for almost 6 months until march when the patch 2.2 hit bringing to the table the new armor/weapon tier into the game.
I'm not going to waste your time telling how the hardcore/casual gear options evolved but in short in order for the casual player to keep up in gear you now have to invest a significantly larger amount of time to get your gear and unlike before the gear you get is not even on par with the ilvl of the gear the hardcore have access to.
It can be said that people spending more time in the game should get better rewards, I can understand that, yet is not one bit less discouraging for those of us who simply do not have the time.
The second reason why I'm leaving the game has to do with the content, the casual player is forced to repeat and revisit content over and over again (daily roulette, atma/animus/novus quests) while the new content is mostly oriented to the hardcore, probably the most disappointing example of this was the atma acquisition, to quote one of my favorites "they are pissing on us without the courtesy of calling it rain", still I tried to look at it as a fluke, the animus quest was a bit better, but the novus upgrade was simply the straw that broke the camel's back. Bottom line the way I look at it, the casual crowd has to endure the lack of content if they wish to keep playing the game. I guess many would be willing to do so, unfortunately for me it is not fun anymore.
Still it is a beautiful game though, I couldn't possible like my character more, it is simply not possible to find more beautiful character and landscape models in any other MMORPG in the market, the gear design is amazing, for the most part each class is unique and fun and the story is extremely compelling. Still I feel 12.99 monthly is a bit expensive for a digital barbie (even if it is the best digital barbie in the world)
To wrap this up, I simply want to say that I'm truly sad to leave the game, if anything I'll take a look around during the expansion and probably come back for a month or two to give it another chance, until then I hope you all the best on your future Endorzean endeavors.
Good bye.
Ken