I have recently been playing live. Started F2P but switched to all access.
I would say the difference between live and here is that all of the modern convenience of other MMOs exist on live. Mail, auction house, player housing, mounts, plane of knowledge teleportation, guild hall, instanced stuff, and such so the game is very casual friendly which is nice for people short on time. There is still a small death penalty but no more corpse runs, they added mercs to help you level to offset the lack of low level players and some of them can rez you.
That said the social game is lacking you wont see this robust player economy and activity that you might see here in say EC. Itemization is kind of weird to get used to at first. The biggest negative to me is now you are kind of forced to use the new models. Ive held out but I am sure there will be a point where the mounts mana regen will be needed.
Its easy mode to level up into your 60s 70s your merc can kill most crap by himself and god gear drops from everything but you can also forgo all of that and still revisit old zones and quest and all of that without the crowded camps. Some mechanics are different and will never be the same like bard dot dmg and all classes are pretty balanced compared to p99 so you can play what you want without worry about desirability in groups and nerfs and such.
If you want a neurotic neckbeard obsession over outdated content slammed elbow to elbow with scum this is the place to be. If you just want to take it easy and explore old stuff or advance at your own pace live isnt so bad.
|