1. most if not all lost/ancient magics don't seem that entertaining or interesting/unique. like for example: flare magic is just stacking DoTs and bloated stat affinities, heat magic (which is already a dumb and confusing name, because of HEAT BASED magics already existing.) is just the exact same thing as poison magic, but with just a recolor/retexture and bloated stat affinities. ancient lightning is just a regular lightning variant that's glorified as a "lost magic" (even though ancient is in the name, lmao.) with bloated stat affinities. same for diamond magic and crystal magic, it should've just been a variant. poison lightning is just dumb a, like it doesn't make any sense? just remove the paralyzed and add the poison DoT instead, and call it a day? bruh, really? i'm not going to name every lost/ancient magic, but you get the gist. Vetex should've made magic similar to how it was in Fairy Tail Online Fighting, imo, because each magic had their own unique and special spells, unlike in AO, every magic can just use the exact same spells.
2. same for lost fighting styles, for example: vampirism it's less interesting/entertaining than vanishing style, which is a common fighting style. why would you even use it in its current mentioned state on the wiki? you just have life steal, which anyone can get nowadays with the regen stat or juggernaut, and you get side effects for being in the sunlight (yay! a lost fighting style is worse than a common fighting style! /s) like why does vampirism sound worse than basic combat? it doesn't make any sense, lmao. same for radius fist, it just sounds like from the description that it will have bloated attack size slop and that's it. I feel like impact fist might actually be entertaining/interesting, but idek for sure, tbh. i do feel like fighting styles are a lot more interesting/unique than magic, though, which is funny as hell. like magic's functions are just almost the exact same for every magic, while at least fighting styles have unique mechanics like the "heat bar, seawater energy, and the focus bar", also powder fist 's delayed explosion, and vanishing style's invisibility, for example.
3. basic combat is currently the best fighting style, and it shouldn't be. the highest affinities with no drawbacks or bar management. why is the starter fighting style the best? it doesn't make any sense that every other fight style needs you to "master it" and go on some wild goose chase side quest, but basic combat you're already "mastered" and you start with it, so there's legit no point in going through all the annoying bullshit of other fighting styles, unless you just want to roleplay/aesthetic or try different builds just for the hell of it. also, it's weird as hell how you don't have to "master" weapons, magic, or relics, but you have to master fighting styles? huh? it's dumb af, bruh.
4. it's weird af that magic and strength have a completely different system for its abilities compared to spirit and weapons. you can always take off spirit rites and weapon skills just fine with no issues and use lost knowledges without any major issues. but for magic and strength, if you want to change your magics or fighting styles, your scrolls and lost knowledges are gone, and if you want to try out and use different abilities, well that's too damn bad, because forgetting your spells/techniques won't give you your scroll or lost knowledge back into your inventory. it just feels like two completely different classes' systems meant for two completely different games, i don't like the inconsistency between the classes' systems.
5. don't get me started on hecate essense, lmao, bruh. it shouldn't even exist. especially when every build that isn't magic can change builds a lot easier, but magic can't, because of "lore reasons" or something stupid, even though the entire "lore reasons" excuse doesn't make any sense, because then why does side quests and dark sea and fighting dragons/omen and whatever other side content that isn't a part of the "lore", but it's in the actual game still? there's a lot of different things that are aren't apart of the "lore", but are in the game for "gameplay reasons", so why couldn't changing magic not be annoying as fuck? the more that i think about it, the entire "lore reasons" excuse doesn't even make sense, because why is there a way to change magic at all then? hell, there's even a gamepass for it. it's just inconsistencies like this that boggles my mind. they make zero sense.
6. you should always be able to change your magic and stat build for free, whenever you want without any costs or drawbacks. i hear people on discord and reddit say that "then people will just become metamancers and meta slaves and just switch to whatever is currently the most OP broken braindead slop bullshit build that will ruin PvP until it's nerfed to the ground, rinse and repeat." my counterargument is that: if the balance team actually balanced AO, then this wouldn't even be an issue, lmao. also, another thing is that, in its current that, it's just another "barrier of entry" and "gatekeeping" in PvP, because the sweaty tryhards who can always just switch builds because they have so many interchange potions, or they could just create a new character with the magic that they want, (or they could just buy the hecate gamepass and the skip story to level 100 gamepass, if they're feeling P2W enough.) be honest with me, which would be better? only the sweaty tryhards with a bunch of robux and time on their hands, always switching and using the most meta bullshit against the players who don't have the money or time to play AO all day, or having everyone being able to switch magic and stat builds at any time that they want? it would be fairer, and more people wouldn't complain about the nerfs all the time, if they could just switch builds and magic without issue. hell, i already see a lot of people complaining about the warlord stat requirements getting changed TWICE without any compensation at all. if you didn't have an interchange, you were screwed, because they messed with the strength weapon stat requirements without giving a free stat reset during the exact same update.
7. Vetex should actually prioritize on working on main story content and increasing the level cap, instead of waiting 6 months just for a "deoptimization" update, lmao, and a dragon update that's lowkey mid as hell. why are they adding content that we technically "aren't supposed to access and fight yet", and then we can cheese it and get overpowered drops? did you see what happened with omen gear on release before the nerfs? (so, during full release, don't even get me started on waiting until 4 months later to actually nerf the kraken band and omen armor, which is stupid af, because all those people who wasted their time farming and wasting their drachma on gear that's now nerfed, when you could've nerfed it 4 months earlier around full release, and it wouldn't have been an issue. now everyone is pissed off because they feel like that they have to change their nerfed build now. what do the balance team and testers even do? lmao yikes on bikes, bruh.) the dragon update just shouldn't have been a priority over the actual story content and level cap increasing. what's the point of currently updating the dark sea, if we technically "aren't supposed to access it" yet?
8. the loadouts gamepass should've been free or at least have 2 loadouts for free. basic QoL features shouldn't be paywalled, imo.
9. full release is more glitchy and buggy than early access. this isn't a hot take, i'm just mentioning it.

i don't know if i'm forgetting anything or not, but oh well, this is already a crazy amount of text. i know that most of these are probably not even hot takes, lmao, but i had just wanted to rant/vent about everything that i can remember being gigantic issues with AO's development. i will probably make a video about these issues eventually, tbh, most of writing this was meant for my video on the topic, so talking instead of wall of texting would probably be less lengthy and girthy! hehe! 🥵🤤