Well i got my beta key at the last min they sent out an extra 5k so it took me about 12 hrs to dl the files from gamestop. The pvp beta is very very limited. Basically you can do a very small pve intro that gets you to about lvl 5. Once you complete that you get bumped to lvl 20 and you get sent to a pvp staging area. You can join the pvp mini games from there. There is basically a capture the flag game and a kill the other team game. So far the ping has been good and my framerate is decent for running this on an upgraded 2 year old pc. I had to turn down the settings a bit but the difference is minimal anyway really. I get about 35 fps in crowded pvp and more in the pve intro thing. The combat isn't anything too revolutionary but its better than the typical button mashing MMO. There is some obvious class balance issues but that's nothing new. The combat seems to be a bit fast to really take advantage of the combonations but since we are all lvl 20 with probably very basic gear that will probably get better at higher lvl. The "feat" system (like talents in WoW) seems to have some nice depth to it. The game does sort of have a more xbox kinda feel to it but that's because it's such a limited beta i think. The UI is sort of simplistic I'd like to see more slots for spells/abilities. Overall though compared to the total crap I've seen with other games this looks pretty good. My only concern is that they are only letting us see such a small part of the game. It's looks good enough to keep me interested though.
Thank you for your balanced thoughts.
Did you like the graphics?
What impressed you most about the weekend?
What didnt you like about the experience you had?
Is there anything that suprised you about the game?
The graphics are decent I think it's more of a style preference than anything. It's not the cartoon kinda WoW graphics but it doesn't have quite the sharpness of what Vanguard had. Of course Vanguard ran at 3 fps so I'll definately take this over that. It does run pretty smooth though even on my older pc.
I was pretty impressed at how well it ran and how good it looked even on lower settings. I had to turn Vanguard into donkey kong to run it smoothly.
Only thing i really didn't like is how limited the test was. It's a very very small part of the game they let us see.
I was pretty impressed that i never got major lag never got dcd never saw the server crash or any of the usual beta stuff so thats one good thing anyway. They really don't have enough to do to really make me want to play it a whole lot but it was nice to get a look at the game anyway.
Okay it's 12pm PST here so I'm guessing the NDA is lifted (15:00 EST, 19:00 GMT) so here's my take on the PVP beta.
First off I'm running a Intel Duo Core 2.66ghz w/ 2 gigs Ram and Gforce 8500 GT 512megs. My video card isn't the greatest but I figure I could run maybe medium settings with a few things turned off or lowered. Not the case, I had to go further than Low settings by going into Advanced and reducing anything there even lower to get what I personally felt was a decent semi smooth FPS. This was really disappointing for me. Reading the global chat it seems that performance varied alot, so maybe it'll be different in retail.
My experience with the PVP games...
Team Annihilation: This is the team based death match, destroy ressurection stones game. Not too bad, was enjoyable and I played mostly these games.
Capture the Skull: Nice setting, but it never got very far because my game would end because of lack of people or sudden crashes.
My experience with the Classes...
Conquerer: Easy to figure out so I tried this first. Not much to say, you get what you expect. It's a warrior melee type and I didn't see anything fancy about it. I didn't do massively epic damage or anything.
Demonologist: Decided to try the mage type class. I like the pet that you can summon and having a ranged spells was a nice change after playing melee. Spells sound cool, but personally, I didn't feel they did much damage in PVP. I would nuke some people but they would just run up to me and hack me to death. I had a root spell but the cast time felt a bit longer that it should be.
(Whatever the class that turns into a monster): Can't remember the name but there's a class that can turn into a monster and is melee. This class was actually fun except that the spell to turn into a monster only lasts 25 seconds and I think 2min cooldown. That's totally lame seeing as how the description makes it sound like that's the trademark of the class. Other than that it had some nice melee attacks and also an area root and also a charge. I had the most fun with this class, I really wish the monster transform was longer and shorter cooldown.
Assasin: Pretty much a rogue class. Was fun to play too with all the sneaking around. EXCEPT for the fact that if you went off a ledge, no matter the height, it would break your stealth and then you'd have to wait for it to cooldown to activate it again. This was incredibly annoying. Jumping also breaks stealth. Makes its very frustrating to cross small platforms and such or to drop down from a small ledge.
Priest: At lvl 20 I felt the priest was completely useless in PVP. The healing spells where all Heal over time and pathetic numbers like 10 or 8 per second, when your teammates can take double digit damage in combat. The holy attacks constantly fizzled out on me as well. The only good spell is the short self invulnerbility. I don't know if I am missing something with this class? but without a targeted heal or a much stronger heal over time, Priest was just a useless body in PVP.
Ranger: This class totally dominates in the current PVP beta. Farther range than a mage which is sad! And can deal MORE damage than a mage as well just with regular attacks. Also has a snare trap, a snaring arrow shot. And even when they come close, you can switch weapons to a sword and shield and use a snaring attack to run away.
Other experiences about the PVP beta...
The introduction single player in the woods is nice but you can't tell how it'll be like when you start getting FedEx or Kill #X quests, so it'shard to see if PVE will be enjoyable (darn! ).
I found the inventory/character screens VERY UGLY. The icons for the items are flat and muddy. During single player quest, I got this club off a boss and I wanted to see how cool it was in my bags and it doesn't not look good at all. The whole inventory/character screens really reminded of the free to play MMO Cabal, ugly and flat. Why am I making a fuss about this? Well, later on when you get cooler items I want to admire them not only when I equip them but in my character sheet.
Combo system and attacking in different directions is interesting but I couldn't figure out how to use it best.
I was also annoyed of the amount of loading screens. When you enter Annihilation your team is in a sealed off area, and then when the game starts, theres a short loading screen. Everytime you die and ressurrect, there's another loading screen, ugh!
I still have not received my beta email, lol... there was a post with a link to the download page and if you where selected, there will be a beta code there. Which I used, so if anyone is still refreshing their email, maybe check the link instead.
Overall I'm a little dissapointed, however, I am still interested in the game's PVE aspect which I enjoy more in MMO's anyways.
I spent most of my time playing Tempest and the HoX.
The Tempest is pretty much what I thought it was. It's much like the Fury class in EQ2 if you have ever played it. It has a nice Area effect root on a 30 second cool down. You have to move a large targeting circle on the ground to cast it. They also have 1 quick cast short duration stun. You have 2 main attack spells at level 20, the main does does a fair amount of damage and also hits other enemies near the target.
The Herald of Xotli at level 20 is pretty much what i feared it would be. You look cool. Once you factor that out, your still a cloth wearing melee who gets messed up really bad when your going toe-to-toe with most of the other melee. When your in your demon form, you can hang a lot better, but it doesn't last long, and the casting of the demon form can be interrupted. The HoX does not have enough stamina to do its melee combos and has way too much Mana at this level.
The spells at your disposal include a damage absorbing shield which never seems to absorb enough and has to be recast every 5 mins. They also have a channeling fire breath spell that shoots out in a cone in front of you. It does OK damage, but nothing to write home about. Finally you have an insta cast point blank area root that only lasts for a few seconds at best. They also have a melee charge like the soldiers, but theirs uses up such an insane amount of stamina then when you reach the target your pretty much tapped out. I can only assume that this class gets more stronger and easier as it gets higher. I have heard they become more magic oriented at higher levels which might explain the disproportionate amount of mana they have.
Overall impressions of the game is that it plays very differently than any MMO I have played previously. This is not a cookie cutter game or WoW clone with the combat mechanics. The melee in this game is very involved. A serious Melee class should be expected to understand how to do combos while managing the shield position to minimize the incoming melee attacks. The games targeting system also shows what spell or ability your target is using. This means that a truly masterful person will see the incoming combo and know where to move the shield, and for mages it means timing your stuns and interrupts.
Healing is pretty much completely different as well. Most of the heals I have are areas effect or cone based. This means you don't need to have anyone targeted in order to heal. Just cast it and your allies in front of you get it.
This game does take some getting used to. If your going to play a melee you really are going to get to sink your teeth into the combo / shield system. It's probably the most interactive combat in an MMO so far. It also means that you need to click your mouse or press a button every time you swing, but your swings are capable of hitting multiple targets and collision detection adds an element of strategy that will be used a lot once some PvP situations. I like it overall and after playing the outside tutorial, I am very excited to see overworld PvP on the FFA server.
AmazingAveryAge of Conan AdvocateMemberUncommonPosts: 7,188
I wont go into detail as a lot of people would take it as bias.
but I will say have a couple of PC's
PC 1: P4 3ghz / x1600 ATI GPU /4gb crap ram / Samsung 22" 226BW 1680x1050 ~ getting around 20 - 30 FPS on custom medium-ish setting. 32bit XP
PC 2: Q9450 @ 3.6ghz , Rampage Formula Mobo, Crucial BallistiX 4GB Ram PC2-8500, eVGA GeForce 9800 GX2, Samsung - SyncMaster 245T 24in monitor 1920x1200 ~ upwards of 60 FPS everything turned on. 64 bit vista home premium.
I had few lag spikes here and there. Necros can have a multitude of monsters, from 3 little demons, to 2 mummies, to 1 lich guy. Quite a few classes have the ability to stun resulting in fun times
had points to spend in your skills, like bandaging (health regen) perception(stealth detection) hiding(stealth) concentration(casting interruption deduction) at lvl 20 you had like 700 some odd points to put in.
I loved the character creation, gets better everytime.
I wont go into detail as a lot of people would take it as bias. but I will say have a couple of PC's PC 1: P4 3ghz / x1600 ATI GPU /4gb crap ram / Samsung 22" 226BW 1680x1050 ~ getting around 20 - 30 FPS on custom medium-ish setting. 32bit XP PC 2: Q9450 @ 3.6ghz , Rampage Formula Mobo, Crucial BallistiX 4GB Ram PC2-8500, eVGA GeForce 9800 GX2, Samsung - SyncMaster 245T 24in monitor 1920x1200 ~ upwards of 60 FPS everything turned on. 64 bit vista home premium. I had few lag spikes here and there. Necros can have a multitude of monsters, from 3 little demons, to 2 mummies, to 1 lich guy. Quite a few classes have the ability to stun resulting in fun times had points to spend in your skills, like bandaging (health regen) perception(stealth detection) hiding(stealth) concentration(casting interruption deduction) at lvl 20 you had like 700 some odd points to put in. I loved the character creation, gets better everytime.
good to see you are finally liking the game. i was getting tired of all your negativity mister.
AmazingAveryAge of Conan AdvocateMemberUncommonPosts: 7,188
Originally posted by URMAKER
good to see you are finally liking the game. i was getting tired of all your negativity mister.
Not just me, pretty much everyone in the chat took more positives away from the game experience.
On another note some of the sound effects were a little annoying but the music... Omg the music was the best I've ever heard in the game. This is limited too, being such a small test area.
There is more "for" then "against" overall from what I can judge
Still alot of balance issues but everyone was at level 20 though.
I think the healing is really going to need some adjustment. I made a priest just to check out the spells and abilities and the best spell i had was a aoe heal for like 15 with 8hp/sec heal over time.... That's basically useless especially in pvp. I know it's only lvl 20 but just the way that healing works strikes me a bit odd with it all being aoe or cone effects. It's hard to make any kind of judgement without seeing any real pve yet. I guess most combat will involve alot of aoe damage instead of the typical tank and spank setup.
So those of you that did try the ranger...how do you like the FPS style for the bow? Pretty sweet huh.
Well, I dont want to have to be the one to do this, cause I really like the game alot, and have played it a total of 14 hours since the PvP weekend started.
But....
There really isnt an FPS Mode, there is a more or less third person over the head view but thats really it. I actually would have played in that mode too, but i wasnt damaging anyone at all, when using it, idk if that was a glitch or what.
I know, this is one of my biggest dissapointments as well. If im missing something and there is a "Real" FPS mode that is working, that I didnt know about, someone please correct me, but this is just sadly one of those things that didnt deliver.
I did actually really like the Ranger class, although they are really overpowered. Like for example you actually hold your arrow in your hand if you back up, and when you fire you actually have to aim at your enemy.
Ty you paragus,I will play a PoM and from what you have just said is exactly what I wanted.
If someone had came up to me in 1980 when I was on my Atari 2600 and said we will be playing games with thousands of people at the same time.I guess my response would have been,"but I only have 2 joysticks"
That video is sped up about 2x what the normal speed is. That is why it looks so fast. Also notice he keeps jumping around like a damm noob does. wow bunney hoppers.. *sigh*
Forgive me if I'm wrong, but since this game isn't turn based, wouldn't bunny hopping actually make a difference in certain cases?
I had fun int he beta I am not that big of a PVP mini game fan so I only played it just a little to get a feel. Well my first match when I died and rezzed it dc'd me I am not sure what was wrong with that but a few folks had the same problem.
For my PC I am running a 3.2ghz AMD 6400+,4GB Corsair XMS2 PC2-6400 ram,8800 GTS 512 in SLI, on a 22 inch widescreen Acer monitor. Well I got good FPS in most of the game int he PVE areas I was at constant 64 fps on medium and about the same on high. When I got in areas with alot of folks like the PVP waiting area it went down usually to 35-45 a few times I had to reboot when I went in from the level 5 place as it would put me at 1-2 fps and I couldn't move. But overall its about what I expected I am sure the normal game will handle graphics better but I got a few hiccups and such and then it would go all the way back up.
For classes I tried a few and found I liked the Assassin and Conquerer most. The ranger felt a little overpowered and wasn't to much fun to use the spell casters to me were nothing to be desired except I did like the Bear Shaman.
Overall I had a good experience and will still give this game a try. I looking forward to alot of the PVE until my guild gets more into the end game PVP type stuff those minigames werent my cup of tea.
The reviews sound very promising from the pvp weekend. Sounds like most of you had a great time. Glad the nda is starting to get lifted on some things and more info is coming out. Still haven't had a chance to check it out .
In PVE I played a Barbarian, love knockback! I actually did a couple fatalities from it. One, I knocked back two mobs, went up to one of them and gutted him with the broken oar, splashing blood on my screen. Another time I had a club at level 5 and I bashed him in the belly which made him double over forward, and I bashed his skull again, killing him, and splashing more blood on my screen.
In PVE I played a Barbarian, love knockback! I actually did a couple fatalities from it. One, I knocked back two mobs, went up to one of them and gutted him with the broken oar, splashing blood on my screen. Another time I had a club at level 5 and I bashed him in the belly which made him double over forward, and I bashed his skull again, killing him, and splashing more blood on my screen.
This video has "Epic Failure" written all over it. You guys download the entire client only to be greeted by a blatantly overpowered class, choppy graphics, poor spell animations and stiff cloaks.
Im sure theyll balance the ranger before launch now...
and the problem with playing an overpowered class is?
also it means nothing to me as i dont play PvP (most of the population never play PvP, but we will see)
MMO wish list:
-Changeable worlds -Solid non level based game -Sharks with lasers attached to their heads
This video has "Epic Failure" written all over it. You guys download the entire client only to be greeted by a blatantly overpowered class, choppy graphics, poor spell animations and stiff cloaks.
Im sure theyll balance the ranger before launch now...
and the problem with playing an overpowered class is?
also it means nothing to me as i dont play PvP (most of the population never play PvP, but we will see)
the fanbase / future population of AoC is a bit different.....there will be PLENTY of PvP.
You know, I've ran into quite a bit of bugs and crashes, but I've had enough fun that they didn't even piss me off, and that's something I haven't experienced since loot-lag-sliding all around Westfall during WoW's launch time.
There's still some class balancing to be done. Unfortunately, a lot of people are runnin' around abusing th glaring issues with Rangers, but 'sides that Ive been impressed with how each class handles as well.
I've mostly been playing a Priest of Set, using crowd control and healing in addition to assisting with damage occasionally.
Sounds like normal MMO stuff for a healer but you know, when I'm targeting the ground, timing a Quicksand cast hoping to catch as many of a flag-bearer's party as impossible, its more involving than the usual target the center of the pile and cast so long as you're within 30m.
Healing is similar. More involved than targeting and casting, 'specially being knocked all over the place, negotiating through collision detection and trying to keep friendlies in the radius of your spells.
In general its everything great I've loved about all my favorite MMOs so far, except the unique combat system makes everything play a tad unique.
I hadn't committed to pre-ordering before this weekend, but now its just a question of which retailer I want to go to.
This video has "Epic Failure" written all over it. You guys download the entire client only to be greeted by a blatantly overpowered class, choppy graphics, poor spell animations and stiff cloaks.
Im sure theyll balance the ranger before launch now...
and the problem with playing an overpowered class is?
also it means nothing to me as i dont play PvP (most of the population never play PvP, but we will see)
the fanbase / future population of AoC is a bit different.....there will be PLENTY of PvP.
Yeah there'll be a lot of PvP, but the fanbase of AoC will be the same fanbase of the MMO genre as a whole...mostly PvE lovers,a lot of PvPers and non-sustainable niches of those who strictly prefer one or the other.
I mention that because I don't want any PvE'ers to feel discouraged. The 1-5 experience impressed me a lot as well. I look forward to the PvE of AoC.
This video has "Epic Failure" written all over it. You guys download the entire client only to be greeted by a blatantly overpowered class, choppy graphics, poor spell animations and stiff cloaks.
Im sure theyll balance the ranger before launch now...
and the problem with playing an overpowered class is?
also it means nothing to me as i dont play PvP (most of the population never play PvP, but we will see)
the fanbase / future population of AoC is a bit different.....there will be PLENTY of PvP.
Yeah there'll be a lot of PvP, but the fanbase of AoC will be the same fanbase of the MMO genre as a whole...mostly PvE lovers,a lot of PvPers and non-sustainable niches of those who strictly prefer one or the other.
I mention that because I don't want any PvE'ers to feel discouraged. The 1-5 experience impressed me a lot as well. I look forward to the PvE of AoC.
That would be me as well. But on those days when you just need to kill someone lol
That gamespot downloader really is a pain. I have only gotten the 1st part to download so far, problems with the downloader install and errors trying to download the files are neverending. The torrent seems very slow for me as well. Luckily i found the other links in the gamespot forums and should finally be able to play later today.
Thanks for the video, I'd really like to see more videos from other testers, even once i'm actually playing. I enjoy watching gameplay videos from other people, Sometimes when i'm tired of playing CoD4 i'll just watch the teammate cams or spectate for a while.
Times liek this make me really miss Stage6, i doubt there will ever be another video site as good as it was. So where do you guys post videos now? I never really liked any other video sites so i don't know which ones are really the best. I never would have guessed, AoC with an NDA lift and i haven't seen 1000s of new videos! Even just the pvp beta build should be pretty impressive. Plus once the full NDA is lifted i want to know where to look.
That gamespot downloader really is a pain. I have only gotten the 1st part to download so far, problems with the downloader install and errors trying to download the files are neverending. The torrent seems very slow for me as well. Luckily i found the other links in the gamespot forums and should finally be able to play later today. Thanks for the video, I'd really like to see more videos from other testers, even once i'm actually playing. I enjoy watching gameplay videos from other people, Sometimes when i'm tired of playing CoD4 i'll just watch the teammate cams or spectate for a while. Times liek this make me really miss Stage6, i doubt there will ever be another video site as good as it was. So where do you guys post videos now? I never really liked any other video sites so i don't know which ones are really the best. I never would have guessed, AoC with an NDA lift and i haven't seen 1000s of new videos! Even just the pvp beta build should be pretty impressive. Plus once the full NDA is lifted i want to know where to look.
Comments
I think the game looks pretty awesome from that video, looks pretty fun to play. Spell effects and animations look fine to me.
Did you like the graphics?
What impressed you most about the weekend?
What didnt you like about the experience you had?
Is there anything that suprised you about the game?
The graphics are decent I think it's more of a style preference than anything. It's not the cartoon kinda WoW graphics but it doesn't have quite the sharpness of what Vanguard had. Of course Vanguard ran at 3 fps so I'll definately take this over that. It does run pretty smooth though even on my older pc.I was pretty impressed at how well it ran and how good it looked even on lower settings. I had to turn Vanguard into donkey kong to run it smoothly.
Only thing i really didn't like is how limited the test was. It's a very very small part of the game they let us see.
I was pretty impressed that i never got major lag never got dcd never saw the server crash or any of the usual beta stuff so thats one good thing anyway. They really don't have enough to do to really make me want to play it a whole lot but it was nice to get a look at the game anyway.
So those of you that did try the ranger...how do you like the FPS style for the bow? Pretty sweet huh.
Okay it's 12pm PST here so I'm guessing the NDA is lifted (15:00 EST, 19:00 GMT) so here's my take on the PVP beta.
First off I'm running a Intel Duo Core 2.66ghz w/ 2 gigs Ram and Gforce 8500 GT 512megs. My video card isn't the greatest but I figure I could run maybe medium settings with a few things turned off or lowered. Not the case, I had to go further than Low settings by going into Advanced and reducing anything there even lower to get what I personally felt was a decent semi smooth FPS. This was really disappointing for me. Reading the global chat it seems that performance varied alot, so maybe it'll be different in retail.
My experience with the PVP games...
Team Annihilation: This is the team based death match, destroy ressurection stones game. Not too bad, was enjoyable and I played mostly these games.
Capture the Skull: Nice setting, but it never got very far because my game would end because of lack of people or sudden crashes.
My experience with the Classes...
Conquerer: Easy to figure out so I tried this first. Not much to say, you get what you expect. It's a warrior melee type and I didn't see anything fancy about it. I didn't do massively epic damage or anything.
Demonologist: Decided to try the mage type class. I like the pet that you can summon and having a ranged spells was a nice change after playing melee. Spells sound cool, but personally, I didn't feel they did much damage in PVP. I would nuke some people but they would just run up to me and hack me to death. I had a root spell but the cast time felt a bit longer that it should be.
(Whatever the class that turns into a monster): Can't remember the name but there's a class that can turn into a monster and is melee. This class was actually fun except that the spell to turn into a monster only lasts 25 seconds and I think 2min cooldown. That's totally lame seeing as how the description makes it sound like that's the trademark of the class. Other than that it had some nice melee attacks and also an area root and also a charge. I had the most fun with this class, I really wish the monster transform was longer and shorter cooldown.
Assasin: Pretty much a rogue class. Was fun to play too with all the sneaking around. EXCEPT for the fact that if you went off a ledge, no matter the height, it would break your stealth and then you'd have to wait for it to cooldown to activate it again. This was incredibly annoying. Jumping also breaks stealth. Makes its very frustrating to cross small platforms and such or to drop down from a small ledge.
Priest: At lvl 20 I felt the priest was completely useless in PVP. The healing spells where all Heal over time and pathetic numbers like 10 or 8 per second, when your teammates can take double digit damage in combat. The holy attacks constantly fizzled out on me as well. The only good spell is the short self invulnerbility. I don't know if I am missing something with this class? but without a targeted heal or a much stronger heal over time, Priest was just a useless body in PVP.
Ranger: This class totally dominates in the current PVP beta. Farther range than a mage which is sad! And can deal MORE damage than a mage as well just with regular attacks. Also has a snare trap, a snaring arrow shot. And even when they come close, you can switch weapons to a sword and shield and use a snaring attack to run away.
Other experiences about the PVP beta...
The introduction single player in the woods is nice but you can't tell how it'll be like when you start getting FedEx or Kill #X quests, so it'shard to see if PVE will be enjoyable (darn! ).
I found the inventory/character screens VERY UGLY. The icons for the items are flat and muddy. During single player quest, I got this club off a boss and I wanted to see how cool it was in my bags and it doesn't not look good at all. The whole inventory/character screens really reminded of the free to play MMO Cabal, ugly and flat. Why am I making a fuss about this? Well, later on when you get cooler items I want to admire them not only when I equip them but in my character sheet.
Combo system and attacking in different directions is interesting but I couldn't figure out how to use it best.
I was also annoyed of the amount of loading screens. When you enter Annihilation your team is in a sealed off area, and then when the game starts, theres a short loading screen. Everytime you die and ressurrect, there's another loading screen, ugh!
I still have not received my beta email, lol... there was a post with a link to the download page and if you where selected, there will be a beta code there. Which I used, so if anyone is still refreshing their email, maybe check the link instead.
Overall I'm a little dissapointed, however, I am still interested in the game's PVE aspect which I enjoy more in MMO's anyways.
I spent most of my time playing Tempest and the HoX.
The Tempest is pretty much what I thought it was. It's much like the Fury class in EQ2 if you have ever played it. It has a nice Area effect root on a 30 second cool down. You have to move a large targeting circle on the ground to cast it. They also have 1 quick cast short duration stun. You have 2 main attack spells at level 20, the main does does a fair amount of damage and also hits other enemies near the target.
The Herald of Xotli at level 20 is pretty much what i feared it would be. You look cool. Once you factor that out, your still a cloth wearing melee who gets messed up really bad when your going toe-to-toe with most of the other melee. When your in your demon form, you can hang a lot better, but it doesn't last long, and the casting of the demon form can be interrupted. The HoX does not have enough stamina to do its melee combos and has way too much Mana at this level.
The spells at your disposal include a damage absorbing shield which never seems to absorb enough and has to be recast every 5 mins. They also have a channeling fire breath spell that shoots out in a cone in front of you. It does OK damage, but nothing to write home about. Finally you have an insta cast point blank area root that only lasts for a few seconds at best. They also have a melee charge like the soldiers, but theirs uses up such an insane amount of stamina then when you reach the target your pretty much tapped out. I can only assume that this class gets more stronger and easier as it gets higher. I have heard they become more magic oriented at higher levels which might explain the disproportionate amount of mana they have.
Overall impressions of the game is that it plays very differently than any MMO I have played previously. This is not a cookie cutter game or WoW clone with the combat mechanics. The melee in this game is very involved. A serious Melee class should be expected to understand how to do combos while managing the shield position to minimize the incoming melee attacks. The games targeting system also shows what spell or ability your target is using. This means that a truly masterful person will see the incoming combo and know where to move the shield, and for mages it means timing your stuns and interrupts.
Healing is pretty much completely different as well. Most of the heals I have are areas effect or cone based. This means you don't need to have anyone targeted in order to heal. Just cast it and your allies in front of you get it.
This game does take some getting used to. If your going to play a melee you really are going to get to sink your teeth into the combo / shield system. It's probably the most interactive combat in an MMO so far. It also means that you need to click your mouse or press a button every time you swing, but your swings are capable of hitting multiple targets and collision detection adds an element of strategy that will be used a lot once some PvP situations. I like it overall and after playing the outside tutorial, I am very excited to see overworld PvP on the FFA server.
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I wont go into detail as a lot of people would take it as bias.
but I will say have a couple of PC's
PC 1: P4 3ghz / x1600 ATI GPU /4gb crap ram / Samsung 22" 226BW 1680x1050 ~ getting around 20 - 30 FPS on custom medium-ish setting. 32bit XP
PC 2: Q9450 @ 3.6ghz , Rampage Formula Mobo, Crucial BallistiX 4GB Ram PC2-8500, eVGA GeForce 9800 GX2, Samsung - SyncMaster 245T 24in monitor 1920x1200 ~ upwards of 60 FPS everything turned on. 64 bit vista home premium.
I had few lag spikes here and there. Necros can have a multitude of monsters, from 3 little demons, to 2 mummies, to 1 lich guy. Quite a few classes have the ability to stun resulting in fun times
had points to spend in your skills, like bandaging (health regen) perception(stealth detection) hiding(stealth) concentration(casting interruption deduction) at lvl 20 you had like 700 some odd points to put in.
I loved the character creation, gets better everytime.
good to see you are finally liking the game. i was getting tired of all your negativity mister.
Not just me, pretty much everyone in the chat took more positives away from the game experience.
On another note some of the sound effects were a little annoying but the music... Omg the music was the best I've ever heard in the game. This is limited too, being such a small test area.
There is more "for" then "against" overall from what I can judge
Still alot of balance issues but everyone was at level 20 though.
I think the healing is really going to need some adjustment. I made a priest just to check out the spells and abilities and the best spell i had was a aoe heal for like 15 with 8hp/sec heal over time.... That's basically useless especially in pvp. I know it's only lvl 20 but just the way that healing works strikes me a bit odd with it all being aoe or cone effects. It's hard to make any kind of judgement without seeing any real pve yet. I guess most combat will involve alot of aoe damage instead of the typical tank and spank setup.
Well, I dont want to have to be the one to do this, cause I really like the game alot, and have played it a total of 14 hours since the PvP weekend started.
But....
There really isnt an FPS Mode, there is a more or less third person over the head view but thats really it. I actually would have played in that mode too, but i wasnt damaging anyone at all, when using it, idk if that was a glitch or what.
I know, this is one of my biggest dissapointments as well. If im missing something and there is a "Real" FPS mode that is working, that I didnt know about, someone please correct me, but this is just sadly one of those things that didnt deliver.
I did actually really like the Ranger class, although they are really overpowered. Like for example you actually hold your arrow in your hand if you back up, and when you fire you actually have to aim at your enemy.
-Jive
Ty you paragus,I will play a PoM and from what you have just said is exactly what I wanted.
If someone had came up to me in 1980 when I was on my Atari 2600 and said we will be playing games with thousands of people at the same time.I guess my response would have been,"but I only have 2 joysticks"
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/235780/page/8
Forgive me if I'm wrong, but since this game isn't turn based, wouldn't bunny hopping actually make a difference in certain cases?Edit: Collision detection*
I had fun int he beta I am not that big of a PVP mini game fan so I only played it just a little to get a feel. Well my first match when I died and rezzed it dc'd me I am not sure what was wrong with that but a few folks had the same problem.
For my PC I am running a 3.2ghz AMD 6400+,4GB Corsair XMS2 PC2-6400 ram,8800 GTS 512 in SLI, on a 22 inch widescreen Acer monitor. Well I got good FPS in most of the game int he PVE areas I was at constant 64 fps on medium and about the same on high. When I got in areas with alot of folks like the PVP waiting area it went down usually to 35-45 a few times I had to reboot when I went in from the level 5 place as it would put me at 1-2 fps and I couldn't move. But overall its about what I expected I am sure the normal game will handle graphics better but I got a few hiccups and such and then it would go all the way back up.
For classes I tried a few and found I liked the Assassin and Conquerer most. The ranger felt a little overpowered and wasn't to much fun to use the spell casters to me were nothing to be desired except I did like the Bear Shaman.
Overall I had a good experience and will still give this game a try. I looking forward to alot of the PVE until my guild gets more into the end game PVP type stuff those minigames werent my cup of tea.
The reviews sound very promising from the pvp weekend. Sounds like most of you had a great time. Glad the nda is starting to get lifted on some things and more info is coming out. Still haven't had a chance to check it out
.
In PVE I played a Barbarian, love knockback! I actually did a couple fatalities from it. One, I knocked back two mobs, went up to one of them and gutted him with the broken oar, splashing blood on my screen. Another time I had a club at level 5 and I bashed him in the belly which made him double over forward, and I bashed his skull again, killing him, and splashing more blood on my screen.
Epic.
I lost focus when I heard Starship We built this city come across my speakers. I have to give my laptop a bath now.
Im sure theyll balance the ranger before launch now...
and the problem with playing an overpowered class is?also it means nothing to me as i dont play PvP (most of the population never play PvP, but we will see)
MMO wish list:
-Changeable worlds
-Solid non level based game
-Sharks with lasers attached to their heads
Im sure theyll balance the ranger before launch now...
and the problem with playing an overpowered class is?also it means nothing to me as i dont play PvP (most of the population never play PvP, but we will see)
the fanbase / future population of AoC is a bit different.....there will be PLENTY of PvP.
I've loved it so far, thoroughly.
You know, I've ran into quite a bit of bugs and crashes, but I've had enough fun that they didn't even piss me off, and that's something I haven't experienced since loot-lag-sliding all around Westfall during WoW's launch time.
There's still some class balancing to be done. Unfortunately, a lot of people are runnin' around abusing th glaring issues with Rangers, but 'sides that Ive been impressed with how each class handles as well.
I've mostly been playing a Priest of Set, using crowd control and healing in addition to assisting with damage occasionally.
Sounds like normal MMO stuff for a healer but you know, when I'm targeting the ground, timing a Quicksand cast hoping to catch as many of a flag-bearer's party as impossible, its more involving than the usual target the center of the pile and cast so long as you're within 30m.
Healing is similar. More involved than targeting and casting, 'specially being knocked all over the place, negotiating through collision detection and trying to keep friendlies in the radius of your spells.
In general its everything great I've loved about all my favorite MMOs so far, except the unique combat system makes everything play a tad unique.
I hadn't committed to pre-ordering before this weekend, but now its just a question of which retailer I want to go to.
Im sure theyll balance the ranger before launch now...
and the problem with playing an overpowered class is?also it means nothing to me as i dont play PvP (most of the population never play PvP, but we will see)
the fanbase / future population of AoC is a bit different.....there will be PLENTY of PvP.
Yeah there'll be a lot of PvP, but the fanbase of AoC will be the same fanbase of the MMO genre as a whole...mostly PvE lovers,a lot of PvPers and non-sustainable niches of those who strictly prefer one or the other.
I mention that because I don't want any PvE'ers to feel discouraged. The 1-5 experience impressed me a lot as well. I look forward to the PvE of AoC.
Im sure theyll balance the ranger before launch now...
and the problem with playing an overpowered class is?also it means nothing to me as i dont play PvP (most of the population never play PvP, but we will see)
the fanbase / future population of AoC is a bit different.....there will be PLENTY of PvP.
Yeah there'll be a lot of PvP, but the fanbase of AoC will be the same fanbase of the MMO genre as a whole...mostly PvE lovers,a lot of PvPers and non-sustainable niches of those who strictly prefer one or the other.
I mention that because I don't want any PvE'ers to feel discouraged. The 1-5 experience impressed me a lot as well. I look forward to the PvE of AoC.
That would be me as well. But on those days when you just need to kill someone lol
The splashing of blood on my screen is funny as hell and it looks kind of like the blood in gears of war.
That gamespot downloader really is a pain. I have only gotten the 1st part to download so far, problems with the downloader install and errors trying to download the files are neverending. The torrent seems very slow for me as well. Luckily i found the other links in the gamespot forums and should finally be able to play later today.
Thanks for the video, I'd really like to see more videos from other testers, even once i'm actually playing. I enjoy watching gameplay videos from other people, Sometimes when i'm tired of playing CoD4 i'll just watch the teammate cams or spectate for a while.
Times liek this make me really miss Stage6, i doubt there will ever be another video site as good as it was. So where do you guys post videos now? I never really liked any other video sites so i don't know which ones are really the best. I never would have guessed, AoC with an NDA lift and i haven't seen 1000s of new videos! Even just the pvp beta build should be pretty impressive. Plus once the full NDA is lifted i want to know where to look.
ummm...youtube