Vanguard: Saga of Heroes

Hello!

I'm looking for a free trail of this game but I can't find one. Is there a free trail? And can someone also tell me what it's like to play this game?

thanks!

No free trial so far, only by buddy-key, ask someone.

Read posts here, give you a picture of whats it like, however only by experience it yourself you will know.

If AoC or warhammer cant deliver what I want in a game, im buying this game and hope they have updated it.(lol) Lets hope for a re-launch, lets hope they fix this game on the issues that needs to be fixed because it has potential in my opinion.

Trial Island is set for launch with the next game update, if you want in before that it is worth the price.  It has dropped in price, and is available digitally.

To be honest I have never been able to get a complete feel of a game from a trial I always try but end up buying it anyways and then making my decision after I have seen the real content.

To try to explain playing Vanguard I would say...

It requires a slightly above average gaming computer.  However if you are able to play new releases your  computer should be fine for this game. 

This game has three spheres of advancement (all can be done on the same character)

Adventuring

1-20- A lot of solo, there are groups from level one but you will not find real dungeons until you reach level 15.  There is a much steeper learning curve for tanks than in other games, damage dealers and healers can squeek by as they can in every other game however.

20->40- Grouping is much faster than solo at this point for everyone (although some classes can solo faster than others).  It is not difficult to find a group, at least on Seradon or Xeth during the usual peak times, and groups exist even during the off hours.  However because many are leveling 2nd characters /tells and networking is necessary to find a group reliably.  Soloing your way entirely to 50 is possible, and while not dead slow is slower than grouping (as it should be).

40-49- It's leveling still, skill is not required but it definitely comes into play much more at this point as far as how fast you progress.  Can be soloed, can begin to start collecting your necessary gear to start end game starting ~47.

50- For the non raider, there are several group instances, factions, and a flying mount quest which is the pinnacle of group content in vanguard (it is genuinly hard, and iinteresting all the way though no one who has completed it to this point would disagree with that statement I don't think)

For those interested in End Game- You can look forward to a very complex and very well put together first raid zone called Ancient Port Warehouse.  Consisting of 5 wings, 19 bosses, 12 mini bosses.  More than 10 quests, class specific armor, recipes, harvestable recources, and crafting.  To date only a handful of guilds across all servers have completed it (has been out for months).

There are also currently 5 overland raid bosses, with at least one being added per major patch and 2 other large raid zones in the works.

1 raid zone may not sound like a lot, but this is not a WoW raid zone.  It could compared more to an EQ style expansion zone (although a much higher quality than most I would say, much harder to blow through).

Copied from my response to another thread on this forum regarding end game in Vanguard:

Originally posted by Murugan

Wow... where to start.

 

Having raided and participated in top tier end game content in EQ2 (2 years), FFXI (3 years), WoW (6 months *laughs*), DAoC, and now Vanguard it is my opinion that Vanguard has the most difficult raid content out of all them (especially considering this is there first raiding zone. 

 

They have also been adding increasingly more difficult raid and quest content since the release of APW despite what a poster said earlier in this thread.  Dresla the Wyvern Queen is much harder than Kotosoth (end boss in APW), and the Griffon quest is a wonderfully difficult group encounter quest line.

 

As for our raiding being simplistic, you are looking at videos that are pieced together over the entire fight.  If you think that "running around" makes for difficult raid content then we have that for certain fights.  Thank god they are not all kiting, since kiting isn't exactly difficult (sorry to let you down).  As for the difficulty of tanking, healing, and the DPS'ing the bosses down before timers or abilities wipe you I would say it rates pretty good.  Mob special abilities and scripts are very unique.

 

Some of the many things you can expect from Vanguard raid encounters:

1.  Add spawns, both timed, percentage, random, and curse based.

2. Damage shields, drains, lifetaps, riposte's, immunities, beneficial incoming damage (such as healed by arcane damage etc.), cones (frontal, behind, side), circular aoe's (with varied ranges).

3.  Stances and Enchantments which must be removed (sometimes taking multiple classes/casts)

4. Environmental spawns and effects such as blades, poison vents, traps, and plenty of obstacles and props that can and in some cases much be utilized in any successful strategy.

5. Charming, stunning, knock back, tossing (a throw over the bosses shoulder), instant death abilities, aggro loss and whipe, refresh, energy/endurance cost increase, and casting time increase.

6. Abilities and attacks that are not limited to the top of the aggro list (meaning affecting people other than the tank), such as curses that affect people above a certain level on the aggro list, or turn and slap attacks where they will attack someone else high on their aggro list then swap back to the tank.

7.  A necessity to have melee in nearly every fight meaning there is no way to get around all area or cone effects by substituting other classes.

8. Important gear progression needed for all classes in order to advance in raid progression.

9. Animations, and NPC warnings that must be paid attention to in order to defeat certain content.

10. Mobs that require the completion of an event to be spawned (often in a timed manner).

 

Also raid makeup is very important for both proper buffs, and class make ups.  Mezzing is necessary for many fights, and aoe damage for others.  No two boss fights are the same, and they all require a strategy and take some time to learn (not that you can't kill something the first try, but there needs to be a recognition of many things and a strategy formed  you can't just zerg something).

Currently all classes are desirable end game which is something I cannot say about many games.  You could argue at the top tier some classes are not wanted for certain fights, but the developers plan on balancing further to make sure everyone can participate in all end game content.

 

VG end game is why I play, there is no equal.  Those thinking they are going to find it in future MMO's are certainly being optimistic but from the trend I have seen in MMO's lately I am not counting on another truely complex and difficult end game to come out for quite a while.  Vanguard seems like the best bet to me for someone really interested in complex team work in an MMO not seen since EQ1.

Crafting

Component crafting that is benefited but not entirely dependent on gear, an enchanting type system built into the crafting game with 3 different ways of "enchanting" each item.  I don't craft much but my friends who do say its some of the best crafting out there.

Diplomacy

Access to the most interesting of Vanguard lore, not for everyone similar to a card mini game.  While a  lot of diplomats would like to see it play a bigger role in the overall game as was promised (and is still promised), they are a necessity for building structures, have a roll in the economy, and are needed in end game guilds.

Hope this post was somewhat helpful, however I find that any MMO requires an advancement of at least a couple months to find out if it is really "for you".