So I know there are a lot of people on both sides of the argument. Some like more challenge and the longer battles. Others, like myself, realize that this patch was a major nerf to newer players. I'd just like to make a few points as to why I feel this way and what I think needs to be done to fix it.

First off, the main problem for new players is the fact that they will not have useful abilities to help them make battles easier. This wasn't so much of an issue pre-patch because players had enough hp to be able to solo effectively at low levels and get those abilities. However, since the changes soloing at low levels is insanely inefficient. Even a level 1 mob at level 1 will take a player down to yellow or orange HP, requiring a full rest between almost every battle. If you try and take on a mob even 1 level ABOVE you, you'll die without healing abilities.

Another issue is that gear is so much more important right now. Wait, what? That's a bad thing? No, it's not bad that gear is more important. What is bad is that players now have to try and keep gear within 5 levels of their character, and also need to make sure that the gear is suited for their class. This means keeping lots of gear sets, and spending tons of money on low level gear. For a new player, they don't have the money to spend. Heck, I couldn't even afford to CHANGE gear until I was level 15+. And when I did upgrade, I broke the bank ugrading for 1 single class. An easy solution for this is to make more vendor sold gear for moderate prices. Perhaps its not the BEST gear for your level, but it's affordable and will get you through until you have more money to spend on the uber crafted gear.

The last issue is just the overall time it takes now to gain levels at lower ranks solo. As a level 8 lnc, I spent 2 hours doing 2 r1 leves and 4 r10 leves last night. These 6 leves got me a TOTAL of just under 1 full level... in 2 hours. Even soloing mobs takes considerably longer. Mobs 4-5 levels under me were yielding only 60ish xp per kill and were still taking 30s to kill each. I could chain a couple of them, but after that I'd have to rest. The pace of soloing is just so awful right now at lower levels.

So what are the solutions? Well, the most obvious one is to just say screw it and only level by partying. The problem again is, for newer players they might not have made any friends in game yet, or might not WANT to only party up. I personally enjoy partying, but I also enjoy soloing and I should be able to do both at least moderately effectively.

Personally, what I think needs to happen is just an increase in XP rewards at lower levels. Basically, just double the XP rewarded from each mob. Increase the completion bonuses on low ranked leves (getting 80xp for a completion bonus on an r1 leve and >200 on an r10 is just not cutting it).

If it were up to me, I would also rework the HP amounts per level. It seems pretty unfair that a level 1 character has only 100 hp to work with. In weathered gear, fighting a level 1 mob, 6-7 hits and I'm dead. That just doesn't cut it. I'd say starting HP should be around 200, it should jump to about 350 by level 10, and about 600 by level 20. If they want to keep it so that we are only fighting mobs roughly our level, fine. But at least make it so that every single mob doesn't take us to the brink of death.

In conclusion, SE really needs to balance combat among all levels. As it stands, new players are going to have a nearly impossible time trying to level and those who already have classes at higher levels will have such an overwhelming advantage on a new player that it's very frustrating.