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WARHAMMER, FIRSTHAND EXPERIENCES
Tanivolan
Member Posts: 16
So I decided to post some info for those of you who haven't been lucky enough to experience warhammer firsthand yet. There is a mountain of information which will be forthcoming in the days ahead, so I will probably not touch on everything, because honestly, I don't have the will to do a full review on the game. But what I will post are things that many players may be curious about. If there is something you wish to know, post about it and I will try and get an answer to you as quick as possible.
GRAPHICS
First, let me begin by describing the basic graphic quality as compared to the inevitable comparison, world of warcraft.
Warhammer Online does not, contrary to popular flame resemble World of Warcraft graphically, period. The game is set in a much darker and realistic world. From Chaos to Dwarf, each area feels distinctly unique, and has virtually no resemblence to World of Warcraft. I can say this with complete confidence having been an avid World of Warcraft player for four years.
Also, I must caution anyone judging the game by screenshots or youtube videos, as the quality is always diminished. The game really can't be evaluated unless experienced firsthand. My opinion is the game is comparable to world of warcraft ONLY in that both games are stylized. Their feel however is drastically different.
USER INTERFACE
The user interface is your standard run of the mill bottom bar of hotkeys, a portrait hit point bar for both you, your target and your party with a small line of icons at the top of the screen for easy access to features such as the Tome of Knowledge etc. It's very clean, minimal and overall very attractive in design. It's also very reactive, as it was recently changed to be instantly reactive similar to any other MMO you may have played in that when you press a button, the action is executed immediately making the gameplay feel more exciting.
NO MANA, RAGE OR ENERGY? SAY WHAT?
Yes, it's true. There is only one single pool of resources used by every class in the game and it is called Action Points. Every ability is based on a static amount of action points which regenerate rather quickly but can be depleted very rapidly in the heat of battle.
LEVELING COULDN'T BE EASIER
From scenarios to public quests, to keep raids and open world realm versus realm leveling has never been this easy in an MMORPG. But beyond that, it's never been this much fun. There has literally never been a time that I have logged on where I dreaded a grind, or for that matter even spent a moments notice planning how I will make my next level. The game offers you a multitude of opportunities to explore and enjoy while gaining renown rank and basic rank, two unique ideas to the game.
Some of you more aged MMO fan's may remember the realm rank system that Mythic's previous MMO Dark Age of Camelot used, in which participating in realm combat would eventually earn you realm points, which would in turn cause you to rise in realm rank. Earning realm rank in that title earned you additional abilities, buffs, access to rewards etc. Well, that is true in WAR's system known as Renown Rank. You gain renown for killing enemy players, taking battlefield objectives and completing scenarios.
The other system of leveling is similar to the traditional "level" model, in which completing quests and killing monsters earns you experience towards your next level. In WAR however, you can earn that experience not only from quests and killing monsters, but also from killing enemy players and participating in scenarios. I feel it important to point out, that this method of leveling earns you items and cash as well, and the experience earned is VERY high, comparable to any other method of leveling in the game. So this means if you want, you can simply click the scenario queue button which resides next to your minimap and join a scenario game and never participate in any other leveling mechanic the game offers.
CLASS BALANCE
I hesitate when writing on the topic of class balance, as it is something that will inevitably change prior to release, but I do feel it appropriate to expand on the current state of the game. So, I am sure many of you are wondering, which class is the flavor of the month, which class decimates all others etc. Well, honestly, Mythic has done an amazing job of keeping the game balanced with a few exceptions.
Currently, most classes stand a good chance against other classes. Healers have significant combat prowess and melee/ranged dps classes have comparable abilities to combat the healers ability to heal while damaging. My experience has been one fought mostly from the side of Destruction as a Chosen, and I have won as many battles as I have been defeated and I can say with certainty that most class pairings are well balanced.
Some people currently argue that Bright Wizards and Warrior Priests are overpowered, but they either lack the appropriate mastery, tactic setup, skill or applicable knowledge of their enemy and it really isn't a class balance issue. Which leads me to my next discussion.
MASTERY SPECIALIZATION
Currently, each class has 3 paths to choose from when specializing their character. You begin earning your first mastery points at level 11, earning a total of 25 mastery points. Each mastery clearly indicates in the lower right hand corner what that mastery specializes in, making it easy for a player to decide which path to take. It ranges from area effect damage, debuffing, healing, ranged artillery strikes/grenades, single target dps etc. They are all very interesting, very viable for every type of sittuation and have been really well thought out.
SKILLS
The game includes basic skills which are purchased from a universal "career trainer", and include abilties such as silences, knockdowns, knockbacks, healing effectiveness debuffs, snares, recharge timer debuffs, extra damage attacks, buffs etc etc. For those of you who have played guild wars, their system of skills is very similar in style. Something unique about the skills in Warhammer however is that once you purchase a skill, you will never recieve an update to that skill, it simply grows in power as your rank increases.
ZONES
Each area, be it Tier 1 through 4, is broken up into a specific region. When you first enter the game, you will enter into Tier 1, in the starting region of your particular race. Within each tier there is typically 2 regions, each completely separate. However, if you travel either north or south, you will travel seamlessly across regions. If you travel west or east however, you will have to zone, which incurs a loading screen and a small wait time.
OPEN WORLD RVR
Ah, the most enjoyable part of the game, crushing your enemy on the open battlefield. Each region contains a portion of its alotted area dedicated speficically for RVR, or realm versus realm combat. The areas are clearly defined, so you won't find yourself accidentally stumbling into a battle you did not intend to be in. Typically, the area is divided into two equally controlled areas between the forces of Order and Destruction, with each team possessing a non-destroyable "Warcamp" on the outer fringes. These warcamps are the point from which all battles initially begin, where you will resurrect if you die within the RVR designated area, where flight masters are found, where you will purchase siege weapons as well as pick up RVR quests. In regards to their design, they are an amazing addition to the open world rvr, allowing battles to rage on endlessly so long as the participants are willing to continue.
PUBLIC QUESTS
This is probably my favorite feature unique to WAR currently. As you progress through the PVE portion of the game, travelling from region to region, village to village you will encounter "Chapters" of the Warhammer lore. Each chapter includes a story, and several public quests. The basic concept of a public quest is that everyone who participates has a chance at earning a "loot bag" which can be retrieved from a glowing loot chest at the end of the final stage of the quest. The amount of damage you deal during the quest also affects your chance at winning, with the more damage dealt resulting in certain bonus to your roll towards winning loot. So say you show up to a public quest in stage 2 of 3, and finish stage 2 and 3, and place 7th in total damage contribution. You will recieve maybe +75 to your roll. You can then click on the quest box, view everyones rolls as they happen and see how you did in comparison to everyone else.
There is a flaw with this design however, in that someone who did very little in contribution can potentially win the "Massive Loot Bag", the best loot available. Some people hate it, some people love it, but regardless this is a really interesting concept and adds a lot of fun to the game.
In addition to a chance at winning loot during the Public Quest, you also gain Influence for each kill and for each stage completion. Influence is measured in 3 bars, with the completion of each bar resulting in an award from the Rally Master who can be found in the nearby village attached to that chapter of the game. The items you gain from the loot chest as well as influence rewards are really quite good and gives everyone the opportunity to get shiny new gear in return for their effort.
GENERAL STATE OF THE GAME
My goal has been to give an informative response to the "current" state of the game. Witholding my personal opinions of where the game should go, and simply stating what the game is right now. So, with that in mind, what does the game feel like overall? It feels great, it feels fun, it feels massive and most important of all it feels just about ready for launch.
I have participated in many closed beta programs, from World of Warcraft, Neocron, Dark Age of Camelot, Shadowbane, Asheron's Call 2 to the legendary Vanguard beta. I can say with certainty that this is without a doubt, the most stable of all the titles I have beta tested, with consideration to how close the launch date is. The current instability of region's is due in large part to the incredible amount of people in one area, something that I expected and have seen before due to companies not having the appropriate bandwith to accomodate everyone on a beta server. In regards to game breaking bugs, there are virtually none as of the date of this post. Almost all abilities function as intended, gameplay is smooth, exciting and fun.
SO COME ON, WHAT'S BAD ABOUT IT
Honestly, very little. Currently lag issues and a few collision issues associated with lag are causing for some frustration in rvr, but again, I stated plausible reasons for this to occur above. Technically the game is very solid as of today, however there are some issues that I have with the game and I will explain them in detail.
Customization seems lackluster. What I mean by this is that for most people accustom to a wide range of methods for customization, they will feel very put off by the limited paths available to them outside of the trophy system and title system. Being an avid Warhammer 40k fan I can understand why this lack of customization occurs. The game is based on the Warhammer IP, in which battles take place with huge armies of repeating pieces which represent a specific unit in the Warhammer universe. So when you decide to play a Black Orc, or a Runepriest, you are essentially becoming one of many, a specific unit which performs a specific job in the Order or Destruction Army. There are ways in which to make yourself stand apart with the armor dye system, but your overall look remains the same. Id like to add however, that the Tome of Knowledge more than makes up for this lack of customization, keeping you interested in more than your characters look but rather your accomplishments.
Enough about customization and lets talk about the game world in which the game takes place. This is a world in which the forces of destruction are constantly attempting to overthrow order. As such, the majority of the game looks appropriately smashed to bits. As I mentioned before, this is a very dark, rustic, stylized world in which you won't find yourself admiring the sunset or the beautiful 10 kilometer vistas. The game feels like there is a war going on everywhere, so that in itself may put off some people not accustomed to rvr or pvp. Also, the real fun of the game is in rvr interaction, with the design of the game being centered around that. Yes, PVE does exist, and it is engaging and it is fun, but the game is really all about getting together with friends and allies and beating the crap out of your enemies. So I must caution the hardcore raider or PVE loner that this game may not satisfy heir normal MMO appetite, but that does not mean they won't enjoy what the game has to offer. Just understand that it is not World of Warcraft, or Vanguard, or any other MMO you are probably coming from. If you keep that in mind you will not have any misguided expectations as to what the gameplay experience will be about. And honestly, Mythic has done everything possible to advertise their game in this way, as a game designed around the RVR model, not PVE so you should already understand that by now.
Combat is also something that many people will find unusual. The way they have designed combat is around the idea that skill, tactics, and awareness play a vital role in how well you will do. So with that, combat plays out significantly slower than anything you will be used to if you are coming from an FPS, AoC or WoW. You aren't going to be two-shotting clothies, stunlocking anyone to death or chopping someones head off. You will battle your enemy swing after swing, using your abilities with correct timing and coordination or you will likely find yourself taking a dirt nap. The average fight lasts anywhere from 15-30 seconds, possibly even longer if you are facing a healing class.
TACTICS
This is something somewhat new to the MMO scene. Each class gets three types of tactics, Career, Tome and Renown. When you first begin building a tactic set you can have 1 of each type. As you progress in rank you gain more tactic slots. So what are tactics? They are small bonuses to class abilities, offensive power, defensive power etc. As a chosen one of your first tactics you recieve gives you a 25% chance everytime you are attacked to absorb 90 damage, with a cooldown of 3 seconds. This damage absorption scales as you gain rank and by rank 20 its absorbing 150 damage. That is a considerable amount of absorption considering chosen critical hits are around 150-200 damage at rank 20. Tactics can be saved as a set, and changed when out of combat only.
RENOWN REWARDS
As your renown rank increases, you begin to gain access to renown rewards. These come in armor, weapons and rewnown abilities. In tier 1 these items and abilities are purchased at warcamps, however after tier 1 you can only access the vendors by controlling a keep, inside which the vendors reside at the top of the keep. Tier 4 vendors are found in the capital cities of Altdorf and The Inevitable City.
That is all for now, I will post more at a later date. I hope some of you find this enjoyable.
Comments
For edits and additional information
You my man are god thank you for the very usefull information and a non-biased opinion on the two games
Good post, Well written
On low level, Magus and Engineer feel gimped, because on RVR a static turret is the last thing you want.
Thank you for a well written and informative post.
[quote]GAMEPLAY
First, let me begin by describing the basic gameplay as compared to the inevitable comparison, world of warcraft.
Warhammer Online does not, contrary to popular flame resemble World of Warcraft graphically, period. The game is set in a much darker and realistic world. From Chaos to Dwarf, each area feels distinctly unique, and has virtually no resemblence to World of Warcraft. I can say this with complete confidence having been an avid World of Warcraft player for four years. True
USER INTERFACE
The user interface is your standard run of the mill bottom bar of hotkeys, a portrait hit point bar for both you, your target and your party with a small line of icons at the top of the screen for easy access to features such as the Tome of Knowledge etc. It's very clean, minimal and overall very attractive in design. It's also very reactive, as it was recently changed to be instantly reactive similar to any other MMO you may have played in that when you press a button, the action is executed immediately making the gameplay feel more exciting. You can actual fully edit you layout to make it which ever way you want it best UI editor i ahve seen in any game.
NO MANA, RAGE OR ENERGY? SAY WHAT?
Yes, it's true. There is only one single pool of resources used by every class in the game and it is called Action Points. Every ability is based of a static amount of action points which regenerate rather quickly but can be depleted very rapidly in the heat of battle. That untl about lvl 9~11, in which alot more stuff starts to open up such as tactics, and morale also some classes have diffrent mechnics such as stances or grudges or warg lol
LEVELING COULDN'T BE EASIER
From scenarios to public quests, to keep raids and open world realm versus realm leveling has never been this easy in an MMORPG. But beyond that, it's never been this much fun. There has literally never been a time that I have logged on where I dreaded a grind, or for that matter even spent a moments notice planning how I will make my next level. The game offers you a multitude of opportunities to explore and enjoy while gaining renown rank and basic rank, two unique ideas to the game.
Some of you more aged MMO fan's may remember the realm rank system that Mythic's previous MMO Dark Age of Camelot used, in which participating in realm combat would eventually earn you realm points, which would in turn cause you to rise in realm rank. Earning realm rank in that title earned you additional abilities, buffs, access to rewards etc. Well, that is true in WAR's system known as Renown Rank. You gain renown for killing enemy players, taking battlefield objectives and completing scenarios.
The other system of leveling is similar to the traditional "level" model, in which completing quests and killing monsters earns you experience towards your next level. In WAR however, you can earn that experience not only from quests and killing monsters, but also from killing enemy players and participating in scenarios. I feel it important to point out, that this method of leveling earns you items and cash as well, and the experience earned is VERY high, comparable to any other method of leveling in the game. So this means if you want, you can simply click the scenario queue button which resides next to your minimap and join a scenario game and never participate in any other leveling mechanic the game offers. Yes you can lvl very fast in scenarios if you keep going to the scenarios for your lvl/tier and fomr more emphesis they are fun as hell, am a total addict to scenarios and public quests.
CLASS BALANCE
I hesitate when writing on the topic of class balance, as it is something that will inevitably change prior to release, but I do feel it appropriate to expand on the current state of the game. So, I am sure many of you are wondering, which class is the flavor of the month, which class decimates all others etc. Well, honestly, Mythic has done an amazing job of keeping the game balanced with a few exceptions.
Currently, most classes stand a good chance against other classes. Healers have significant combat prowess and melee/ranged dps classes have comparable abilities to combat the healers ability to heal while damaging. My experience has been one fought mostly from the side of Destruction as a Chosen, and I have won as many battles as I have been defeated and I can say with certainty that most class pairings are well balanced.
Some people currently argue that Bright Wizards and Warrior Priests are overpowered, but they either lack the appropriate mastery, tactic setup, skill or applicable knowledge of their enemy and it really isn't a class balance issue. Which leads me to my next discussion. Yea this is tricky, a group of BW togeter= over power though lol, WP they are good as they are. they have the right note on them but need that fine tuned note.
MASTERY SPECIALIZATION
Currently, each class has 3 paths to choose from when specializing their character. Each mastery clearly indicates in the lower right hand corner what that mastery specializes in, making it easy for a player to decide which path to take. It ranges from area effect damage, debuffing, healing, ranged artillery strikes/grenades, single target dps etc. They are all very interesting, very viable for every type of sittuation and have been really well thought out.
SKILLS
The game includes basic skills which are purchased from a universal "career trainer", and include abilties such as silences, knockdowns, knockbacks, healing effectiveness debuffs, snares, recharge timer debuffs, extra damage attacks, buffs etc etc. For those of you who have played guild wars, their system of skills is very similar in style.
ZONES
Each area, be it Tier 1 through 4, is broken up into a specific region. When you first enter the game, you will enter into Tier 1, in the starting region of your particular race. Within each tier there is typically 2 regions, each completely separate. However, if you travel either north or south, you will travel seamlessly across regions. If you travel west or east however, you will have to zone, which incurs a loading screen and a small wait time. East<->West travel tend to lead you into RvR zones.
OPEN WORLD RVR
Ah, the most enjoyable part of the game, crushing your enemy on the open battlefield. Each region contains a portion of its alotted area dedicated speficically for RVR, or realm versus realm combat. The areas are clearly defined, so you won't find yourself accidentally stumbling into a battle you did not intend to be in. Typically, the area is diving into two equally controlled areas between the forces of Order and Destruction, with each team possessing a non-destroyable "Warcamp" on the outer fringes. These warcamps are the point from which all battles initially begin, where you will resurrect if you die within the RVR designated area, where flight masters are found, where you will purchase siege weapons as well as pick up RVR quests. In regards to their design, they are an amazing addition to the open world rvr, allowing battles to rage on endlessly so long as the participants are willing to continue. When you control both BO your realm(meaning any/all races from that side) will control that zone.[/quote]
adding my own comments on some stuff you did not have.
Very nice post, thank you muchly.
I'm looking for something new to play, and I've had my eye on this since AoC failed me. Not a huge WH Fantasy fan, but I think it looks like a blast. Think it would tide me over for a few months?
This is a very great post and thank you for the feedback!
Purpose in life is not to gain things, but experience. - Rover64dd
I just want to add a few points regarding zone-control:
Zone control is given for a side that scores enough Victory Points in that zone. The things that give VPs are Battle Objectives, enemy keeps, player kills, scenarios, and PvE activity (minor contribution). If you roll into a zone at 4am in the morning and take all the BOs and Keep you will NOT get zone control. You need a high enough activity so your side gets points from scenarios/player kills to reach the threshold. At the T4 level this part is significant.
From what I have gathered you do not need to win a scenario to get Victory Points - but you get less as the loosing side than a winning.
Every now and then a zone resets completely so you need to start over.
All these mechanisms exist to ensure that small night parties do not result in city sieges.
agreed, the magus moreso than the engineer feels quite akward and out of place on the battlefield and its quite obvious few players enjoy the experience, as I have encountered very few magus players.
Best review i've read so far. Great info, and great perspective.
On Magus: I only had fun defending with this class. If I ran into anything 1v1 I was dead quick, and while advancing my disc was like a big target for ranged casters to jump on. While defending and laying back I could do some great things and have fun, but this is definitely a situational RvR class in my eyes.
There is more than enough content to last you 6 months and beyond, keep in mind Mythic has a history of releasing free content updates so there will probably be more to look forward once the live game begins to grow stale.
bump, added tactics information
There is more than enough content to last you 6 months and beyond, keep in mind Mythic has a history of releasing free content updates so there will probably be more to look forward once the live game begins to grow stale.
I think there's plenty to do, there are five 'spheres' to level after all and I think it would take a long time to max them all;
Rank
Renown Rank
Crafting
Tome of Knowledge
Guild
I think many people will overlook ToK experience in the beginning and will end up going back to the lower tiers to get unlocks, do all the PQ's for influence and ToK XP etc. over all three pairings that they missed out on whilst leveling.
(Did I miss anything else that you can level up?)
There is more than enough content to last you 6 months and beyond, keep in mind Mythic has a history of releasing free content updates so there will probably be more to look forward once the live game begins to grow stale.
I think there's plenty to do, there are five 'spheres' to level after all and I think it would take a long time to max them all;
Rank
Renown Rank
Crafting
Tome of Knowledge
Guild
I think many people will overlook ToK experience in the beginning and will end up going back to the lower tiers to get unlocks, do all the PQ's for influence and ToK XP etc. over all three pairings that they missed out on whilst leveling.
(Did I miss anything else that you can level up?)
Exactly. There is so much to do that at times it can feel overwhelming. I usually stick to scenarios and rvr, because that is what interests me about WAR, but the other spheres are just as fun and full of interesting things to experience. Public quests for instance are very addictive, as long as enough people are around to participate otherwise they are generally too difficult to attempt with only a few people.
There is more than enough content to last you 6 months and beyond, keep in mind Mythic has a history of releasing free content updates so there will probably be more to look forward once the live game begins to grow stale.
I think there's plenty to do, there are five 'spheres' to level after all and I think it would take a long time to max them all;
Rank
Renown Rank
Crafting
Tome of Knowledge
Guild
I think many people will overlook ToK experience in the beginning and will end up going back to the lower tiers to get unlocks, do all the PQ's for influence and ToK XP etc. over all three pairings that they missed out on whilst leveling.
(Did I miss anything else that you can level up?)
influence and capitol cities
am doing the first high elf PQ just so that i can kill 25 hydras. (when you are a tank cllass it is kinda hard for you to be credited with the kill)
Ty very much! Very good objective Review! I am in Beta too (European Beta) and i can say that i would have written it in the same way. I can agree to nearly every point!
People may not like the game, but thats not because the game is not well done, but they compare to much to exsisting games. This game is in its genre a very very well done game. Period!
Greets
Xuul