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Hello DAoC! Goodbye EQ...
Lyolas
Member Posts: 59
Hi all. I am presently downloading the free trial and was here reading posts to pass the time while it downloads. I thought I'd add one of my own also whilst here.
I did a free trial some time ago, I forget when and created a character I was not too happy with but the game itself I was very impressed with just having seen the first levels. The first impression at least was good and it seems there is quite a lot to look forward to. I don't mind it being an older game and some of the things that tend to come with that both bad and good. I am coming from six years of EverQuest so I am not unfamiliar with playing a game that's been around some time and changed quite a bit in that time, again sometimes for the bad and sometimes, hopefully more times, for the good.
EQ was a fun ride faults and all and I don't have a lot of complaints about the game itself. It is what it is and I found it fun but after that much time, there really wasn't anything new under the sun nor would future expansions likely change that much other than new places to kill new stuff in the same basic world with the same basic play mechanics and no pvp at all.
I wish I had started DAoC a long time ago actually because I have a feeling that for me it overall is a better game given my own preferences, playstyle, etc. I can imagine many of you know how it goes there. You become really entrenched in a complex world with a highly developed character who is very powerful, you are rich, your alts start with the best twinks in the game, etc. and in some ways life is pretty darned good until it gets old for you which ultimately EQ did get for me.
I've tried most of the major MMO's on the market past and present at least briefly to see them and some a little longer than that. My first exposure was Asheron's Call when it was new and not too long after I played EQ and the rest is as they say, history. I have spent most of my gaming time there for years now with occasional breaks for WWII themed shooter and exceptionally good SP RPGs.
While I could go for something newer I don't believe any of them are as good as this game likely is going to be for me. EQ2 has come a long way but despite being a different game with many, many improvements and a nice community of players it's kind of a double-edged sword of love/hate for me given its shared lore and likeness to where I have already spent countless hours. That's really not to knock the game which I think is probably very good today other than in terms of my own taste.
So today I uninstalled the other stuff and now the DAoC trial is downloading (87% of the gargantuan install so far) and when it's done I'll be making my first visit to stay this time I think. I actually bought the retail anniversary box yesterday but figured I might as well take the free tour first before I open it and commit. I'm looking forward to a combination of pve and pvp in this game along with a lot of nice features never put into EQ such as housing, etc. and an entirely new and huge world to enjoy exploring and questing in, etc.
I like a lot that I can solo effectively with most if not all classes not because I am antisocial but because I sometimes play odd hours and its something my cleric in eq was never able to do. In fact I won't play a healer here most likely even if they can solo. I need a change there as well. In old SP RPGs I was always some kind of fighter although I could enjoy and probably will play both fighter and offensive caster classes.
Having read about TOA and the fixes to it which I am happy about personally as my hardcore raiding days are permanently over, I am inclined to want to play the real deal in its entirety. So I think even though the classic servers seem to hold the highest populations I want to roll my guy on a regular server with all content enabled and see how that plays. Considering how hard core I used to play and how much they adjusted TOA content I don't see myself taking issue with that although I would have when it was new as many did from all I've read.
I am tempted to play on more than one server just to see the other areas of the game. I imagine many do but I will probably start off with one guy in the Celtic region (I am of Irish descent so I must do this... lol) and try to focus on him initially then take in more things as time goes by.
So see, new blood does trickle in even to the older games and for me all will be exciting and new. Hopefully some of the enthusiam I will very likely have will be a nice thing for old hands I run into. I know I liked that in EQ on those rare occasions when I met a brand new player that oftentimes had been encouraged to try it by a friend playing or whatnot.
Once nice thing about an aging game like this is that oftentimes the people who are in it for the long haul are also some of the nicer people you'd want to meet in these worlds. I don't know if anyone else has noticed that elsewhere but it seems to hold true in my experience.
I've tried various flavors of MMO-Lite and for me, I'd rather play a decent single player RPG with some story and substance for that amount of hours rather than those games where it seems to be a ride on rails that all about the itemization and player rankings more than anything else. Personally I love the journey. I love exploring and the sense of tension and danger when one enters the unknown. Farming raid gear to ascend some stats based ladder isn't my idea of a good time personally.
It looks like the world is really huge with three kingdoms and so many class variations to choose from. It should be a lot of fun for a long time I hope. So many times in EQ I wished there was pvp but not for the best reasons I have to admit. I wanted to kill people who drove me nuts is the truth of it. At least here I can take that angst out on opposing kingdoms for the fun of it. I really think I will like that as someone who has for many years enjoyed pvp in online shooters. Given RPGs have always been my favorite kind of entertainment for the many years I've been playing, I don't know what took me so long to seek out the premier pvp online RPG. Well, better late than never I guess.
So I will look forward to meeting some DAoC players in game soon now and thanks to all for the helpful posts here, especially the FAQs and informational posts regarding the many initial choices a new player is confronted with. This was so helpful to me to read while the game is downloading. I have at least a somewhat informed choice made now vs blindly creating a character someplace without a clue what the choice really means. Of couse, ultimately first-hand experience will tell me where my best fit is but with a brand new account the worlds are wide open and I can change things if I like and try out various places to see them for myself before I level someone to 50 and become part of a guild etc.
I'm very pleased to see DAoC is still doing fine. I think a lot of people fail to realize not everyone can or needs to be wow in terms of numbers to be successful. As long as there is adequate revenue for some profit and a quality experience, there is success by the best measure of it. I've read a lot about this game before deciding and I get the impression Mythic while not perfect is a lot more on the ball than where I just came from and that looks good to me. I will probably try Warhammer as well when it comes out if I am happy here which doesn't mean I'd leave DAoC if I was liking it but I might divide my time between the two. I have a feeling that is going to be an excellent game which will benefit from many lessons learned here and in efforts before this one.
He who hesitates is lost.
Comments
A great post!! I hope to see you in game when i return to it in the fall...I'm overseas right now...
Have fun!!!!!
I played DAOC for many years and enjoyed it immensely. Like EQ for you though, it eventually just got old to me, so I no longer play. Good luck, and have fun. It's pretty easy to level these days, not all hard like it was way back when.
Don't forget to check out the battle grounds, you can play in them all the way up to lvl 50 pretty much.
D.
Well said... I played DAOC along time ago and for me it was one of the better games that I have played. If I didn't have friends that I promised to play games with I would probably still be playing today. Unfortunately I am the friend that says "oh you playing this, well let me just jump right over..." Sad for me but great for my friends. I hope you enjoy your stay in DAOC.
Farok
Let me welcome you to the game then. It's always nice to see new players. I too used to play EQ ALOT (yay for 50 hour weekend binging
), and for a time I played both EQ and DAoC, usually EQ for pve and DAoC for rvr. I've been playing DAoC since day 1 and still have fun in the frontiers (the rvr area).
P.S. If you come on the Caerleon cluster in Hibernia I may have to decapitate you...nothing personal, just realm business
~Signed
The Big Ugly Troll, Gravarg
Welcome to the game! Its a great game
I couldn't imagine playing on a normal server though just not enough people for me. Also the economies on those servers are a little messed up cause most people on them are 50 and really rich. Most of the stuff on the market is priced for lvl 50 players.
If you ever play mid on classic let me know and we can group up or just make fun of the hibs.
Yeah you took a long time to get to the party
I played EQ from around launch until DAOC's launch. I just happened to be out at the store looking at games and I saw DAOC. I thought that it looked really cool so I bought it and played it. Turns out the game was just launched 3 days before I bought the game. I was so blown away by the game that I got a hold of my friends, made them quit EQ and play DAOC. I then logged into EQ and told everyone to go play DAOC and then cancled the EQ account and removed it from my computer. I have never looked back at EQ.
While both games are far different from what they used to be, I still remember one of the first DAOC reviews I read - DAOC is similar to EQ, but has fixed all of EQ's problems.
Have fun in DAOC, its a great game. I think everyone should try DAOC at least once, and by try I mean level to 50 and get involved in some real RVR. I cant speak for the TOA servers, but classic server has loads of RVR action. Its unfortunate that Mythic doesnt advertise or push DAOC into the public eye much anymore, cause its still the best MMO Ive played, and I've played about 8 of the big name MMOs over the years.
everyone should try DAOC at least once, because I'm not sure if Warhammer will even be as good as this game. I know the hype for Warhammer is off the charts right now, but I think the game has alot to prove in the RVR aspect. Things I think may prevent Warhammer from achieving the level of greatness of DAOC RVR include:
1. lack of dedicated support classes (from what I have read everyone can dps in WAR, and will be wanting to get the deathblows etc, this does not make for good teamwork at times.. see smite clerics in DAOC smiting instead of healing, or shadow priests in WoW)
2. greatly reduced effectiveness of crowd control (while I hate being mezzed for 45 seconds as much as the next guy, CC plays a huge role in the shifting tides of battle in DAOC, and I have grown to see its necessity. if your group is excellent with CC, it takes a fight to a whole new level).
3. Instanced RVR battles. Maybe its just me, but I simply hate instanced fights. My hatred is probably a result of my time in WoW. I want to see how Mythic handles this, as far as keeping groups intact, and making the fights seem dynamic, etc. Regardless, I cant see myself enjoying this aspect of rvr, but of course the game isnt out yet, maybe ill eat these words..
4. DAOC has three realms in RVR, instead of the usual two. This makes for very interesting RVR situations, that simply arent possible with 2 sides.
I had other reasons but I seem to be forgetting. All I can say is after waiting years for Warhammer, I hope its as good as DAOC. I have my reservations from waht I have been reading.
Thanks all for the nice replies. This is what I was referring to when I mentioned people from an older game tend to be a nice community though I don't claim to know why that is... lol
Well I got the trial installed and the realized it was up to Shrouded Isles. I remembered you could somehow upgrade to catacombs graphics which i thought would be nice so I went and looked into that. This resulted in two more downloads for TOA and Catacombs and then the installs. By this time it was past the wee hours and I had to work evening shift tonight (I am a nurse) so before work I only got as far as patching the game to current and then off to work I went.
I had to go read what the heck clusters were but fortunately google led me right to the mythic announcement of them when they were introduced which explained the basic idea such that even the old man here got it I think. That sounds like a very good idea to me and beats server consolidations I'd say having seen that firsthand in EQ.
I am a little surprised more people don't want to play the TOA content now that its been toned down so much and from what I read is at least mostly groupable now unless I am misunderstanding something. I would think that too would be fun stuff but maybe the changes are a little late for those who migrated to classic servers and are now established on them. I wonder what people would do if Mythic offered free transfer from classic to TOA as an option given the changes to TOA now although I guess that is not a very likely scenario.
While I'd like to see all of the game over time, including TOA, what someone said above about classic vs TOA made me think I should begin where there are the most players even though a part of me wants to not miss anything. I can always play on a regular server at some later time if I really want to see TOA firsthand as it exists now. Given more than 5 years of content now though I have to wonder if I'd ever want to bother if I become established and have friends someplace with more people, etc. Who knows, I guess time will tell but I think I'll change course before I get started and roll my melee guy on a classic server where each time I check there tends to about twice as many players.
I just got off work and was unwinding a bit when I noticed in email there had been responses here so I thought I'd check in and read them then reply. Now I think I will go make my guy and play a little on one of the classic servers. I'll post later who he is and where in case any of you happen to be in the same vicinity and maybe have a low level alt you feel like playing or something with this sure to be lost at first newbie... lol
He who hesitates is lost.
I think launching the Classic servers were a mistake. A couple months after their launch, ToA has made a lot better. Not it is pretty much to where it should have been at launch years ago. The only good thing, if there is such a thing, that the classic servers did, was allow the population to migrate to a server to have a large population. This allows the game not to feel as barren to new players.
I say go start on a regular server if you want. I guess it depends on how much you really want to group at low levels and what content you want to do. It is for the most part faster to level solo than in a full group. A full group will often just want to do an instance because it is the best XP for a full group. There are people with new characters and even new players on the regular servers.
So, if you want to have a lot of people around and want to group no matter what you do, then go classic. If not, the regular servers are a lot better place to be.
Well once I left here I wound up thinking I want to think about it before I make any characters. Maybe I think too much but you spend so much time in a place like this I'd rather put some thought into where I begin spending it so I feel good about my choice then to jump in and later wish I'd done something different. That's just me. I probably obsess to much over things but as such am a prime candidate for MMO addiction... lol
Anyway, I wound up unwinding in FEAR Combat for a while and some old RTCW online fun that involves little thought but is fun just the same. The crazy pace and carnage in online shooters, the good ones, often makes me laugh out loud even at my own many deaths.
I do want to get going and do something tonight so i am going to roll a toon or two somewhere. Have just perused some of the race/class choices including beyond my originally intended realm of Hibernia I noticed a Thane class that looked kind of cool where he seems to basically be a melee warrior type but who does also have some offensive spells. Part of me kind of likes the idea of having some optional magic ability and part of me wants to play a pure melee although if anyone, one who can heal himself some much be nice for soloing up a lot of the way to 50 which is what I am expecting and do not especially mind either. Of course I do eventually want to make friends and play with them but I am guessing the real fun starts at 50 in the RVR play and maybe some dungeon runs and questing. Leveling alts is probably a fun thing to do when friends aren't around, or would be for me, once I have one 50 guy to go out and play with people.
My other thought was to go with a very powerful caster type akin to the necro in EverQuest. I think there is a necro class here isn't there, probably multiple variations on that theme even. While I'd like to experience a number of classes over time to 50, etc. I am trying to identify one of either the melee or offensive caster persuasion who can really kick ass on his own leveling to 50 at the hands of a person learning thier way as they go for the first time. Maybe that's a tall order but its what I am hoping for. At least the basic mechanics of playing an MMO are not foreign to me but that's about all I have going for me starting off here in an entirely new place.
Aside of those two basic kinds of characters there is one more that interests me a lot and that would be some form of what I knew in EverQuest as an Enchanter, the premier cc guy in that game. In EQ there are times when nothing less than the real deal specialty class will do for something and the Enchanter there was that kind of class in some situations at the least, besides being very handy to have in any group in my opinion. I've read some references to the importance of cc in DAoC and its impact in RvR just a little but I hardly could I say I know much at all as I don't.
What are chanters called in DAoC and again, I am guessing there are probably multiple kinds of them? Or maybe there are certain classes that don't fit the mold I expect who manage cc very well in this game? Anyway, there is another one that interests me a lot, especially if they could actually solo well to 50 and I really don't mean just that its possible but a character that would actually be good at it. My only recent point of reference in terms of a soloing class is necros where I came from. Those guys could solo very, very well in many places. They were not invincible and summoning mobs could eat them but overall, they ranked number 1 in being able to play on thier own from 1 to 75 if they chose to and by a good margin I'd say.
I've got to pick somebody to be the first one I focus on and raise to 50 and I'd like it to be somebody who can fend very well for himself whenever I need him to or simply want him to. I could see myself this time being a little less married to my main and raising several characters and in doing that I hope to hit on melee, offensive caster and cc class characters to experience all of that over time. But its back to ok that's nice... who is first? lol
And while I did look at a midgard thane I think it was, I do think I'd kind of like Hibernia most. Ultimately though if needed I'd worry less about realm (I'm sure they are all fun) and more about a guy who can solo well and is one of the three types I like best.
Don't mind me being a little all over the place. This is the time to do it before I commit to a server and realm/race/class, etc. in a place offering such an wide array of choices to make.
Which do you guys think would be a good choice for first character given all I said here and previously?
Warrior of some kind? Offensive Caster of some kind or Crowd Control guy of some kind?
I never ever want to play a character like my cleric again who at max level with plenty of AA and some of the best raid gear in the game was still gimp as hell solo and could not effectively solo for xp at all. Yes, he could solo plenty of stuff, kill various old world named, etc. but it was simply a bit of fun not productive at all if I wanted to work on some AA xp or whatnot. In short, I felt six years later that he sucked hard to put it bluntly and I did know know how to play him very, very well in every circumstance. I was also painfully aware of his built in by design gimpness and hated SOE and Verant before them for that design choice.
I deliberately chose a very group friendly character years ago and would like that again but not with the tradeoff of near complete dependence on a group to do anything at all, even just some xp alone sometimes.
Given that I like groups but I do like solo too maybe I will take on the full game vs the classic. The choice of where to play is a lot less important to me the more I think about it than who to play given my previous experience and desires for this time around. I'll probably make three characters that roughly fit what I was talking about for classes and start fooling around someplace while I get more feedback here. Even if I delete and reroll at this point its no big deal while I am getting a first feel for the game.
I do love reading your comments and look forward to any more you might have for me about some good race/class choices that would fit the bill I've talked about. I'd especially appreciate any info explaining why or how you think this or that character race/class combination would be a great soloer who's later a valued group member as well and particularly in the areas of melee, offensive casters and cc.
Thanks a lot for reading my long posts and the great replies. I know I have quite a gift of the gab as the Irish say. I appreciate your replies very much.
He who hesitates is lost.
I would say start with the regular servers. If, after you play for a bit, you are feeling just too lonely, then reroll on the classic. You won't be missing anyone and all you will have done is spent a few hours on a toon learning the game.
As for the EQ Enchanter, I think Hib's Mentalist's come the closest. You have charm, mez, heal over time, damage over time, power regen buff, DD, and AoE DD. The problem is that Mentalists have so many better tools that if you play a mentalist you won't train the spell line for mez. You will have a single target stun.
Bards are the primary CC class for Hib. While you can solo as a bard and do well, it is one of the slower classes to do it with. You are mostly geared for support and groups.
If you go Mid, Spiritmasters are good CC. They have AoE root and Mez.
Not sure what is closest to Necro's, maybe Alb's reaver? Alb does have a class called necormancers but they are very different I think.
It is a hard decision to pick a class. I would avoid any stealth class for now (they do not get groups easily). Solid classes that level fast solo and also wanted in groups - Vamps (mostly for their killing power but there are a lot of buttons to press to play this class). Wardens - strong melee/back up healing class in addition to a couple other abilties.
Actually almost all classes will work. I would say avoid any stealth classes because of lack of groups. Avoid animists and warlocks because they have a steep learning curve. Bainshees can also be difficult to play because the only agro control you have in AoE. I would only go for a pure support as your first class as well. Healing is a thankless job and you will just be learning.
Thanks Julian. After a careful review of the classes available within each realm and keeping in mind that over time I think I'll wind up sticking mostly to one realm just to capitalize on whatever my main accomplishes for gearing other characters, etc. I think I've finally made up my mind now.
I wanted Hibernia initially but the class choices for Midgard are more to my liking. I know many overlap in what they can do for balance reasons from one realm to another but Midgard is the one place that covers my likes the best it looks like.
There's a total of six classes that look very good to me and would be a lot of fun to play I am sure. Of these, I think I will divide my time between two initially and from that time decide who wins to be my main character at some point. Those two are Thane and Bonedancer. A tank with some offensive spells sounds very fun and the bonedancer looks like a EQ necro on steroids with multiple pets under a commander pet when he's older. I think I would enjoy both of those a lot.
Other ones that look very good to me and I am likely to try over time also include the Spiritmaster, Runemaster, Warrior and Skald. So basically its Norse Mythology and the Vikings and Mystics for me. This is probably good after years of elves anyway. I shall now take my pleasure in killing them whenver I get a chance. As someone above said in reference to chopping my head off, nothing personal, just realm business. LOL!
So that's the plan and off I go to play at last but I will come back to see what you think of those or if there's any other suggestions related to playing in the Midgard realm.
Sometime to experience the other realms at least a little I think it would be fun to play a Hibernia Vampiir and a Albion Necro. I imagine they both solo pretty well.
As for server/cluster I am going with Palomides server in the Killibury cluster which offered me a little perk in terms of xp I think when I was checking out the classes in the game character create screens. So I am going to try a traditional server vs the classic at least initially and see how I like it there. The worst that can happen is I may wish for more groups along the way and move if I can never get them but overall, I don't think it will be all that bad soloing a character or two up to play with the majority in the full game if I need to. There are bound to be some groups or duos or trios or whatnot along they way meeting people's alts and whatnot so I think that will be ok.
I do hope that on Palomides and within that cluster people actually play the now older TOA content. I probably should have asked about that earlier since it's what the choice is mostly about other than I think I gain /level for alts on a regular server and that would probably be very nice once i know the game and have a high level main. While it was toned down I am guessing there is little in the way of content there somebody coming up could solo but if it was originally a raiding oriented expansion I imagine it must be 50's content mostly anyway. Who else would be raiding really even then?
He who hesitates is lost.
One other thing about my last remarks above from my past experience I wanted to add here is that in EQ, most of the higher level players tended to move en masse into new content as new expansions released leaving old expansions content pretty much desolate. As Norrath became bigger and bigger and bigger this trend became more and more pronounced. Great old zones are often empty and old quests are hard to get any help with, etc. Everyone is usually into whatever the newest content is, where the best upgrades drop, new quests are, new flags, keys, raid zones, etc. all are.
Is this pretty much the way it is in DAoC as well? Are most people in the most recent content on a traditional server or even the classic servers and all the older places are fairly empty? I keep wondering if anyone even plays TOA now fixed or not is why I ask. Am I giving up twice the population overall for something nobody does anymore?
It's too bad they don't do a server consolidation at this point and reduce the tradional server clusters down to maybe two more populous ones that compete numbers wise and therefore player experience wise, more favorably with the classic servers cluster. The people are there playing but they seem more spread out than they ought to be. I don't get why they don't correct that.
He who hesitates is lost.
No, DAOC suffers from too much area and everyone is spread out doing their own thing. The only "central" place you will find are the capitals. Since there isn't an endless quest for gear and levels, people will usually switch characters often. There are a minimum of 3 areas for every level range to level in, 4 once you get to level 40. You will have the original, then each exapansion added level specific zones. Then you have the RvR areas, a multi-level range dungeon.
People now are mostly in the Epic zones. Those zones are actually from the launch of the game. There is a series of quests that end with slaying dragons there. DAOC has decided to stop releasing commerical expansions because there is already too much landmass. Instead, there will be 2-3 story arches launched that starts in the original zones. The goal is to add content and update the world in a permanent way by redoing zones, destroying towns, adding new quests/NPC, etc.
The best quests in the game are from the Catacombs zones so I would start there.
Mid is the least populated realm on most of the servers. Vamps also have built in buffs so they do not need a support class to buff them. So if Mid is too lonely switch to another server a roll a vamp.