Vanguard: Saga of Heroes

Hey

1. What are the bugs like (cosmetic, game play?), and how often would I encounter them?

2. How long does it take to hit the max level? This concerns me as I've found that most of meaningfull player interaction happens only at the high levels, and I'm not interestid in a huge long grind either.

If you wish, you could also shortly compare the game to WOW.. Thanks

1.  Sometimes cooldown timers get bugged out but that's fixed on the test server; I think that's my biggest concern at the moment.  Hitching (slow fps when you first enter an area) is also a big concern still but i think that is getting fixed in Game Update 5.

2.  You could probably reach max level in two months or faster if all you care about is leveling (i know people who can get to 50 in a mattter of weeks, but obviously not on their first time through.)  You can solo to 50; i did it on my first toon, but honestly i would avoid doing that because grouping is probably the most fun part of the game and most of the epix (1-50) come from quest chains focused on group content.  I've done some raiding in APW and i can definately say that it's more challenging and interesting than MC (WoW's first raid dungeon, by comparison).  I can't compare APW to the raiding in WoW's expansion because i haven't ever played it, but I can assure you that Vanguard raiding is more than tank and spank. Strategies will only get more involved ( i imagine they already are--my guild has only scratched the surface of the MASSIVE raid zone that is APW) as the devs design more content.

  I think a lot of this has to do with how much better class design in Vanguard is.  With all the shit you hear about vanguard, it's hard to imagine that class design (probably one of the more subtley difficult aspects of game design) was done so well in vanguard.  Appearently it's what they focused most on in beta, or the Sigil dev in charge of that actually knew what he was doing. Either way, what's amazing is that not only are all classes useful and fun to play, but there are MORE of them than in WoW offering a somewhat overwhelming amount of options.  There are a total of 15 classes in vanguard; off the top of my head, at least three of those classes have "specializations."  Even classes without different versions there's still a good amount of freedom as to how you want to play your class.  I've played two toons to 50 and a couple others to 30ish so i'm not just talking out of my ass here.  Plus, most people i talk to enjoy their class (but it generally takes people to find the right class for them).

The crafting system is steps and bounds beyond anything i've seen before.  Sure, it gets a little repetitive but it certainly beats WoW's crafting.

Never tried diplomacy, but a lot of people like it.

Graphics are better than any other MMO on the market, but you need a rig better than what you might expect (keep in mind this is an MMO, not a single player PC game).

I'd recommend:

CPU--

  2.5ghz (3.0ghz is better; if you're buying a new one for the game i suggest the new 45nm core 2 duo model)

high 7 or 8 series nvidia card.  I know people who claim that the game runs fine on their 8600gt or 7600 or the like, but i would stick to 7800/8800+.  If you're buying a new card for the game, i highly recommend the 8800gt (great performance for the price).  Also, don't bother with SLI because it has little performance returns. 

2ghz of ram.  minimum.

consider investing in a raptor but it's really not necessary as long as you're good about defragging.

etwynn said it very well, but just to add my 2c:

I rarely if ever encounter bugs these days, but performance may be an issue if you are running an older rig.

I think in VG you will find the player interaction much more meaningful through the levels. For one thing the content lends itself to grouping, and the typical player isn't focused on soloing to 50 as quickly as possible.

As has been said, APW is a pretty involved dungeon and the class design really shines here.

gl with your travels in VG