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My PVP weekend impressions (very long)
Anlar
Member Posts: 101
Well, I know many are eager for some info so here are my initial impressions.
Too long didn't read version: The game is fun, but is very punishing to comps near the min requirements. Even at low settings your fps will be bad. A memory upgrade and video card upgrade is probably a must if you want to enjoy the game for a long time. Otherwise you'll just be frustrated everytime you are in a city or want to pvp. The pieces are in place, and I'm having a blast. But Funcom has a ton of work to do to give it the polish it needs. The game has huge potential, but I'll go into some of the drawbacks in the longer review.
I'll divide the impressions into sections:
Character selection:
It's a pretty unique selection screen with your character on the boat in a storm. On the other hand, the lighting is quite low (at least with my settings) so it was hard to tell details of your character, especially hair color. I couldn't tell the difference between black and dark blue. The amount of customization is pretty staggering. You can go from emaciated to fairly fat, but you still retain muscle tone. So you can't look like a sumo wrestler or anything.
For me, the tatoos and body markings leave a lot to be desired. Most of them are enormous and in a horrible color. If you could change the color of your tatoos, that would be better. The worst part are the hair choices, they just look bad. There's a few good ones, but most kinda suck imo. However, I was able to create some pretty sexy characters, but some of sliders still seem to do nothing. We might not have access to all the options in release, but I was a bit disappointed. Certainly a millionfold more options than wow, but not being able to adjust the age of your character, or more facial details seem conspicously absent.
7/10. Lots of options, but still could use some work. Characters will be unique, but will you be able to create close to what you really want? don't know.
Tortage 1-5:
I had a blast doing the initial quests. Sure it was just a bunch of slaughter, but it allowed you to get used to the controls. I had fun blasting everything away as a demonologist. My second character was a bear shaman, and it was absolutely necessary to do those first few levels to get used to the melee combat (more on that later). My only complaint is I wish I could do more! It's hard to pvp with a level 20 class that you've only played for a brief period of time. It's fairly linear, but you can swim a little and explore the beaches and bit off the beaten path. Once you reach tortage, you get sent to the pvp lobby. The mobs die fairly easy, but some of the boss mobs can give quite a beating.
The only thing that seemed out of place was the amount of hit points on the gorillas. They seemed to have over twice as much as other mobs and the same as boss mobs.
9/10. Just fun stuff!
UI:
I have some big issues with the UI. Your first 3 hotkeys are taken up by directional attacks. when you're later level you'll have 5 (if you're a melee class). On top of that you have TONS of abilities even at level 20. There's just no room on the main hotbar for everything. I like that there are a lot of abilities, but having attack take up 3-5 hotkeys in addition to all the spells, abilities, and combos is going to be difficult to deal with for a novice. You can't click if you want to do combos. Casters are better off as they don't really need to melee.
The second problem I have is tab targetting. It doesn't work as well as it does in wow. I'll face a target, hit tab and it'll give me something to the side. In pvp, I really wanted a way to assist my team members. There needs to be some sort of targets target implemented in the default UI. I also miss portraits next to the health bars of your target. That was a feature in wow that's kinda fluff, but the visual really helps you see what you're fighting more than just a name.
Everything else is fine, but the UI really needs to help streamline combat and make it easier for people to attack, buff, heal etc. Another annoyance is not seeing what class the person is that you have targeted.
It's a workable UI, but not nearly as good as Wow's. A good UI addon is something I'll be looking for asap unless funcom streamlines things a bit better.
5/10. It's fine, but it's missing the little things and doesn't facilitate combat as well as it should. Probably my biggest complaint with AoC. Even then, it's not gamebreaking nor makes me want to cancel my preorder, but I still think it can do more.
PVP:
I spent most of my time in the Team Annihilation matches. There was one map, and it was a blast when people were just running around and killing each other. Once people started figuring out the rules, strategies are becoming insanely predictable.
You basically queue up for a match, get sent to a waiting area. A team is formed and the match starts in 60 seconds. Each time you have to go through a short load time. You are either red or blue team and it's very easy to see because you have a long cape with a red or blue color. As far as I can tell the color you get is random.
The basic goal is to kill the opposing side more than they kill you. There are also two graveyards you can control. To control them is similar to the Eye of the Storm battleground in WoW. You just stand in the area and over time you take control. Imo, the amount of time it takes is too fast. You stand there for 10 seconds at most and you're on your way. If multiple team members are there, it takes about 3 seconds. You can also spawn at your starting point.
What ruins this minigame is the totem system. Once the totem is destroyed you can no longer rez (except via spells). What ends up happening is that each team rushes to the other base, destroys the totem, then kills each other. With rangers being so OP atm, they can snipe down the clothies in short order and there really isn't anything they can do about it. Funcom acknowledged their damage is way too high, but they haven't fixed it and everyone is making rangers because they own so easily.
The totem system is an interesting idea to end the matches earlier, but in my opinion just make the BG too predictable. Maybe when it's destroyed stop rezzes for a minute, and just time limit the match. If you can destroy the team before the minute is up you win. Also, if you control a gy you should be able to rez, but if your totem is destroyed you can't rez there anymore. That makes no sense.
Capture the skull is pretty fun with the few matches I played. My fps was too low to really do it that much so I stuck with the Team annihilation matches.
Now onto class reviews. Ill give impressions on the classes I played
Tempest of Set:
I really like this class. The lightning spells are powerful and I owned the quests leading up to tortage. Lightning strike is kinda ridiculous. It's an aoe attack and allows you to kill about 4-5 mobs at once if you so choose. It's rather fun and they kill faster than melee classes, at least in the newbie zone.
At level 20, they have a variety of healing, cc, and attacks. They have three healing spells and a rez (7 sec, PoM rez is 6, Bear shaman is 8 sec). They have the conal heal, a group hot, and a group heal. Each have a significant cooldown except the conal heal, which is 2-3 seconds I think. The others are 15-20 or so.
They have a 30 minute cooldown group mana restoration spell, which is cool.
The two CC abilities are cobra stare, a signle target 5 sec stun, with a 45 second cooldown. The other is quicksand, an aoe root. It's targetable up to 20 yards.
They have 3 damage abilities. The first is degradation of set, which is a buff that periodically takes mana away from you. but certain lightning spells make the target more susceptible to electrical damage.
next is charged blast, a typical fast cast nuke with a 7 sec cooldown.
Last is lightning Strike, the aoe spell I talked about. it's a long cast, but short cooldown. ToS also have a few buffs including an HP group buff and single armor buff.
Healing is pretty effective in pvp, but due to you need to be in proximity of your teammates, it leaves you vulnerable to the opposition. With better tactics (like teammates protecting you), your heals can turn the tide. It's also essential to shield you if you want to use your aoe lightning strike. People are newbs now, but when players are better, no one is gonna let you get a few second aoe attack off. On the other hand, you get an aoe root, so I can see that combo working quite nicely.
For those hoping for poison or dots, sadly this isn't the class. It's purely a lightning caster with healing and utility. It's last feat in the thunder tree sounds pretty cool.
Summon Aura of Nebthu
"This nebulous servant is summoned from Stygia's most ancient city and is able to blast enemies with lightning storms. It faithfully follows its master."
I would go over the feats more, but I'm sure someone will post info on all the feats in the coming days. The priest feats seem to support whatever role you choose, healing damage, etc. It will be essential for pve or pvp.
Overall, I give the class 8/10. Definitely on top of my list if I want to roll a healer.
Bear Shaman
I will just discuss the melee combat system here. In pve, the mob is surrounded by these markings. The more markings he has on a side, the more he's protecting itself there. So you attack where there's the least amount of markings (upper left, upper right, or over top at the start). Essentially, melee combat at low levels is a minigame, similar to whack a mole. It's entertaining and fun. The combos rely on you executing the directional attacks in the correct order. At level 20 your combos are 1-2 directional attacks.
For example, censuring strike requires you to press upper left attack and upper right attack in that order to execute the combo. Internal bleed is simply one move, over the top attack.
At low levels it seems most all melee classes get a sweep attack, which is your aoe melee attack. It's pretty fun and effective. One minor quibble is the melee classes get very similar, even identical abilities at low levels. Fortunately they branch out at about level 5, so its not monotonous.
Bear shaman have quite a list of abilities, including armor reduction, stuns, knockbacks, and even a hit reduction attack. The problem is the abilities aren't specific enough to my taste. I want to know how much armor I'm reducing, how much are the attacks hitting for? It's hard to know if one ability has a weak damage attack but good utility, or strong damage and good utility. This is where wish I could have leveled him to 20 so I had more of a chance to get used to the different combo options.
Melee combat is awsome and very fun! you won't do too well button mashing. It will take a long time to master I expect. One downfall is that in pvp it's hard to execute combos because if you press the directional attacks too fast you fail the combo. This means people have time to sprint away from you. It becomes frustrating unless you can stun or snare your opponent. Anyway, it's only level 20 pvp and no one really knows what they are doing.
As far as their heals, they have a cone heal like the ToS, an aoe direct heal with a minute cooldown, and a buff called renewal. Next successful attack puts a hot on your teammates. Pretty cool essentially passive heal. As I mentioned earlier, their rez spell is 8 seconds, as opposed to 7 for ToS and 6 for PoM.
Another unique feature of bear shaman are their totems. One is a regen buff (stam, health, and mana), also when you're attacked you have a chance to become more resistant to further attacks. Next is the claw of stone, which protects you against crushing blows and such. The last buff is another group health buff, which is weaker i think than ToS, and I think PoM's group health buff is the most.
If you're a fan of the melee combat system and want a complex class that can heal, the bear shaman should be quite fun for you! it was my first melee class and I struggled with it at first, but got used to it a bit more. I think I would have more pvp success if I had better frames (will be upping my vid card for the may release).
7/10. Complex, innovative class but I'm a bit on the fence about their melee and pvp prowess. However, they have some pretty cool utility. Since I gave a feat with ToS, here's one for bear shaman in the spirit tree.
Another end feat: Iron Hide - "Absorbs all damage of the next attack against the Bear Shaman". Ah heck, here's another in the wrath tree.
Nature's Revenge (end feat) - All the bear shaman's attacks have a chance of adding to Nature's Revenge Counter. When this counter reaches 10, all nearby allies will be healed.
Demonologist - My last detailed impression, but I'll give a short impression of HoX. I played around with Dark Templar a tad, but I can't really say much about it. I want to try more of the melee classes next.
I wasn't initially interested in Demonologist, but I really just wanted to try a caster since very little info was available about them. If you like playing casters, you'll love the demonologist. Like the ToS, I owned the newbie area combining their long fire cast with their short fire cast.
At level 20, you get a variety of self buffs, lightning and fire spells. I went with the havoc tree (lightning) just cause i felt like it. Pvp was quite fun, but the demo is pretty squishy.
You get an instant shock attack, a shock nuke, a shock root that does electrical damage over time, and an aoe lightning attack (selects an area of ground, unlike the ToS conal aoe attack). They can also blast enemies in a channeled waves of flame, a conal fire attack.
the self buffs include an armor buff, a spell that absorbs some damage to each party member from each attack. eventually the spell fails after enough damage is absorbed. A fire shield that reflects fire damage when attacked, and oddly an attack rating buff for their party. Finally they can buff themselves to do more fire or electrical damage, but not both.
Oh and pact of set, which increases damage done greatly at the cost of health over time.
It's definitely not your typical mage class as you get a succubus (or incubus) on top of all these abilities. It gives a passive mana buff and attacks your foes. unfortunately you have zero control over it (well I couldn't figure out how to control it). This seems a bit silly to have no control over your pet, but perhaps it's by design. These pets are not nearly as powerful as warlock pets in WoW. People think the demonologist is a warlock ripoff, but imo it's more like a mage because they have no dots and have very little control over pets. Even then, it's a distinct class of its own and has some very cool spells and abilities. I'm eager to try necro to see what it's like but overall I love the demo. As far as first character in release, it's between ToS and demo so far.
9/10. I love casters, and this class has everything I want from a caster, and seems fairly deep as well. Looking forward to spellweaving.
Again I'll leave you with a couple feats.
In the Havoc Tree, here are both the end feats.
Pact of Earthwalking - "Grants you the 'pact of earthwalking' spell, which lets you free your pet from the chains that bind it, allowing it to fully manifest fully in the world with all of its powers"
Thunderclap - "A channeling spell that invokes a cone shaped energy field that inflicts electrical damage and has a chance of flinging someone caught in it"
Overall, this game is very fun, but it's only a taste. I'd really like to sink my teeth into all the classes outside a pvp environment, as you really need to grow with the class to really learn how to use it. I'll probably put impressions up of other classes tomorrow or monday when I have experience with others.
Comments
Nice write up, thanks!
Out of every 100 men, 10 should not be there,
80 are nothing but targets, 9 are the real fighters.
Ah, but one, ONE of them is a warrior,
and he will bring the others home.
-Heraclitus 500BC
Forgot to give my brief impression of HoX.
Was pleasantly surprised. It has the melee combos (but obviously fewer than pure melee classes) with a bunch of fire spells. Of course the center of the class is turning into the demon. I wish it was an instant cast, but the cast time is pretty short. It looks pretty badass and you own quite nicely. Again another fun class that look forward to playing around with more this weekend.
first off great review. (for once) it was a mature review and very well written.
i am incredibly dissapointed by the tempest of set. i was really looking forward to using poisins (like a snake) to kill my enemies. i will still play it but i feel healing will be more rewarding than using lightening (really am angry at this class now). as you did not play assassin i do not yet know what they are like but i am always up to play assassins so i guess i will like it. glad to hear the noob quests are fun and i'l watch out for those Gorillas
. the UI thing doesnt really bother me but i can see where it would really bother some (to the extent of them quitting the game over it) i think to fix this they need a separate circle thing with the directional arrows on it in the bottom left (or right) of the screen) kind of like a little joystick. character customization sounds like it needs a little polish but it does sound good.
again a great review, you spoke your mind without flaming or overpraising the game
MMO wish list:
-Changeable worlds
-Solid non level based game
-Sharks with lasers attached to their heads
Great review. I just started following AoC so I was glad to see so much good info.
All in all a good review. Thanks for posting. I don't mean to rip on your play stile or anything, just felt the need to state my own thoughts.
No required quests! And if I decide I want to be an assassin-cartographer-dancer-pastry chef who lives only to stalk and kill interior decorators, then that's who I want to be, even if it takes me four years to max all the skills and everyone else thinks I'm freaking nuts. -Madimorga-
I think its great so many of you got to experience the game with overall positive results and feelings.
I knew when I played the mini games back in Jan at the community event, it was just pure fun.
Now alot of you know even more so how the combat works and what makes it that "little bit different" to the norm.
OP. thanks for your impressions, they are pretty much the same as I came to apart from the Bear Shaman gets some awesome stuff later on.
We have to remember though this is only lvl 20 mini game PvP, there is so much more to come!!
good write up, and I have to add the following:
yes, MANY things were left out of this client version, in order to avoid having to download an even bigger file.
This is a taste test, in a way.
Also, the client version is not the most recent build, just to get that out in the open. What you're experiencing is already outdated, and improved upon.
I am actually glad I did not participate in the pvp weekend because quite frankly I don't consider "capture the skull" or team death match as something that belongs in a game of the kind of setting as Conan. I feel it changes the feel and I'd even go as far as say the genre of the game from an MMORPG to a FPS with swords and magic. When I think PVP I think of massive spaces with tons of people fighting over something important. It also has to affect the rest of the game world. When the game launches I doubt I will ever set foot in either of the mini games they have simply because I do not enjoy them and a majority of the people I plan to play with feel the same way. I will be out in the border kingdoms fighting over castles and forts and what have you.All in all a good review. Thanks for posting. I don't mean to rip on your play stile or anything, just felt the need to state my own thoughts.
I'm glad everyone is enjoying the info. I'm sure my opinions will change over time, these are just my first impressions. As far as the UI, it's a matter of preference. For me I want to focus on my abilities and skills rather than fighting the UI. AGain, it's fine, I just think it can do more. Some people want less facility, but that's just a preference. In AoC it's hard to distinguish between classes, particularly the plated ones. Necros and demos stick out like a sore thumb for obvious reasons, as do rangers.
The depth comes from the combos and use of your abilities, mastering the UI shoud be very easy, but maybe by level 80 it will be. Again I've played it for less than a day :P I do want to stress for the most part the UI is fine, I would just like some additions. Unfortunately, I don't know how melee classes are gonna deal with 5 directional attacks on their hotbar in addition to all the combos. For novices, it's going to be a bit overwhelming to hotkey everything. For people used to hotkeying everything, probably won't be as big of a deal.
Well, I think it's off to try a new class. Thinking about conqueror now
then after that necro.
Also, glad to hear bear shaman get more fun in later levels. i actually enjoyed it, but my frame rates make it hard for me to really get the most out of a melee class. My video card is beyond horrible, so I'm gonna get a pretty good one and hoping it will allow me to play on medium settings with 20-30 fps. If you're over 10 the game is very playable, but under that it can get choppy.
All in all a good review. Thanks for posting. I don't mean to rip on your play stile or anything, just felt the need to state my own thoughts.
I agree with you on hoping that funcom does not allow add ons. But those battlegrounds are great for when you can only play for a few min and just want to do something fun without waiting.
All in all a good review. Thanks for posting. I don't mean to rip on your play stile or anything, just felt the need to state my own thoughts.
I agree with you on hoping that funcom does not allow add ons. But those battlegrounds are great for when you can only play for a few min and just want to do something fun without waiting.
forsure, bring up the U.I search for match away you go, you have your quick fix. The mini games in Guild Wars are really popular looks like its going to be the same here too. Looking forward to the Border Kingdoms :P
I have no issues with people partaking in the mini games as long as that's not the CORE of the pvp experience. As long as the mini games don't provide rewards that people would otherwise be getting from all the work they do in the border kingdoms then I'm fine with it. WoW has made me a bitter person towards any sort of Battlegrounds scenario. The only solace I have is remembering how it worked in DAoC and can only hope that they keep it like that. Even though DAoC's battlegrounds did reward you with Realm Points it would only work for the lower levels below the max level. Once you maxed out on levels you'd be thrown out into the border kingdom equivalent areas and would have to fend for yourself. You couldn't hide behind a set amount of people and hope that you'd fall through the cracks and still manage to benefit in some way.
No required quests! And if I decide I want to be an assassin-cartographer-dancer-pastry chef who lives only to stalk and kill interior decorators, then that's who I want to be, even if it takes me four years to max all the skills and everyone else thinks I'm freaking nuts. -Madimorga-
Im with you I can't stand the fact that WOW became such a instance pvp driven game.. Funcoms other MMO Anarchy online while revolutionary in may ways also had some great PVP..
I would hate to think that this Company would try to become another Blizzard now and just go with the pvp in a bottle crap that is in WOW... World PVP is where it is at, and if AOC does not provide just that then what the hell would I want to leave WOW for?.
This better not be some writing on the wall that they probably will not have much World PVP...
------------------------------
You see, every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with their surrounding environment, but you humans do not. You spread to an area, and you multiply, and you multiply, until every natural resource is consumed. The only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet.-Mr.Smith
Yeah, the whole mini-game PvP deal will turn me off if template CTF teams turn out more fruitful for PvP levels than going through the trouble being involved with and managing a guild in the border kingdoms.
That's exactly what I'm talking about.
No required quests! And if I decide I want to be an assassin-cartographer-dancer-pastry chef who lives only to stalk and kill interior decorators, then that's who I want to be, even if it takes me four years to max all the skills and everyone else thinks I'm freaking nuts. -Madimorga-
An accurate review, I need to see people who have been playing three months or so (after release obviously) and have reached 80, and played at 80, before I really decide. It's attractive, no doubt.
--------------------------------------
A human and an Elf get captured by Skaven. The rat-men are getting ready to shoot the first hostage with Dwarf-made guns when he yells, "Earthquake!" The naturally nervous Skaven run and hide from the imaginary threat. He escapes. The Skaven regroup and bring out the Elf. Being very smart, the Elf has figured out what to do. When the Skaven get ready to shoot, the Elf, in order to scare them, yells, "Fire!"
Order of the White Border.
Beside the issues getting it downloaded, I am really enjoying it as well. I have a few minor issues, but I am sure they will be fixed in soon enough time.
~The fonts don't seem to change much when going up in resolution, and wish they were a tad bigger when I am at 1900x1200
~Theres a memory leak, and While it has not maxed out over my 2 gigs(usually settles down at 78% with my other programs running in the background), after about 8 map changes I have to restart it as I edge closer to 98%, and things get a little slower.
~Everytime you rez in pvp, it goes back to loading screen, to "Generate content" I don't know why this is necessary, as I am not going very far, many times I can turn around, and see where I am spawning from, but I still need to reload >.>
~Being farmed! They will push a team back to the statue, and because of the long respawns due to reloading, one or two will spawn at a time, only to be met by the entire other team, who wont kill the statue.
I have been playing primarily a Demo, and love it! In the matches, I only use 3 active spells, the shock hold, the 2.5 sec cast high damage shock spell, and the instant cast long recharge shock spell. and of course my summon. changed my keys A bit, I put my attack left on my "Q" key, attack right on my "E" key, and I have attack front on my mouse. Use my 1-7 keys for spell slots. Keep my buffs on the Alt-number key bars to keep it neat and orderly, since I only need them every 30 minutes to an hour.
I am sure people are complaining somewhere about the demo root, but It is so useful, and can still be countered by a stealthing assasin who gets up on me, because he attacks so fast, it sets the spell casting back each time he hits, you cant get anything off, like the to run, and my melee as a demo is about as effective as whacking an iron golem with a tea spoon.
there have been alot of issues from others with hard ware problems, people with pentium 4s saying the game is basically unplayable. I don't know if I have just good enough system or not, but my fps runs at 60-75 in the heat of combat, spells blasting, swords swinging in 1900x1200 with pretty decent settings. I have a p4 3.4, 680i, 8800gts oc 640, 2 gigs of ddr2. I know the game looks far beter than WoW or lotr at this point for me.
We'll have to wait for the open beta at the earliest to find that out. From what I understand though, the PvP weekend was basically just to show the mechanics of the game, and to get a good judge of system requirements. The minigame style of the PvP was selected to make it more manageable as far as being able to get in a PvP match quickly. So, although the minigame style may also be in the release version, I don't think it's the actual focus of PvP as a whole.
I decided to run it on my second comp, which has the following specs:
Socket 478 P4 2.6GHz single core ( overclocked to 3.0GHz ) with Hyperthreading
2gb DDR ram
Creative 5.1 soundcard
7600 GS 3.0 shader AGP card
The only things I turned down were bloom, anti-aliasing down to 2 ( client has it default to 16 ), and shadows down to medium.
The game runs between 20-30 fps, and looks awesome. When they said you could run this game if your rig could run Oblivion, they were telling the truth. My hat is definitely off to Funcom.
I am actually glad I did not participate in the pvp weekend because quite frankly I don't consider "capture the skull" or team death match as something that belongs in a game of the kind of setting as Conan. I feel it changes the feel and I'd even go as far as say the genre of the game from an MMORPG to a FPS with swords and magic. When I think PVP I think of massive spaces with tons of people fighting over something important. It also has to affect the rest of the game world. When the game launches I doubt I will ever set foot in either of the mini games they have simply because I do not enjoy them and a majority of the people I plan to play with feel the same way. I will be out in the border kingdoms fighting over castles and forts and what have you.All in all a good review. Thanks for posting. I don't mean to rip on your play stile or anything, just felt the need to state my own thoughts.
I actually couldnt agree more, these arena/battlegrounds with capture the flag and team death match is kinda ridicoulus. If i want those type of features in a game i go play q3 or ut.
Since everything is about money im afraid we will see mmorpg´s gettin easier and easier thou. And it really killing the genre as i like it. Would not surprise me at all if FC decides to put that class name up next to player names, and implement other neat features which makes the game easier to earn more subscriptions. I dont really like it when u can see your opponents hp either but thats another discussion i guess.
Overall im still positively surprised by AoC and i think it can be a nice game that many people enjoy.
L2 Addict since - 10 april 2004 07:40:22
Welcome to the Lineage II Open Beta. -