WAR (Warhammer Online)

    So...over the last year and a half or so, when the big WAR vs AoC debate was going on (and still currently is)...I have taken the side of AoC since the start.  The glamorous promises of "revolutionary combat," "hundreds against hundreds," "ultimate graphics," and the "next genre dominating PvP MMO" have not come to fruition.  

    Well now that I have been playing AoC for a few months including beta, and have been at endgame for a while with 2 live lvl 80s and 1 in beta...I am not seeing anything that I was promised.  This was advertised as a gritty, bloody, dark and hardcore PvP MMO.  Well...it's not very hardcore at all and I play on the most populated  PvP server.  No death penatly for PvP deaths, half the gear in the game doesn't work in PvP as to not give an "unfair" advantage, making PvE epic raid gear worthless in PvP.  Our guild owns one of the 8 battlekeeps on the server and there is no benefit at all to having one.   Sieges are COMPLETELY broken, none of the siege mechanics work, there are holes in the battlekeep walls, and it's impossible to take over a battlekeep without exploiting.  Last night our guild raided an undefended battlekeep and destroyed EVERY BUILDING, ALL THE GATES, and the main city, and guess what?  We still weren't even close to winning the siege, they rebuilt it in 30 minutes.  There are no PvP levels or feats as promised, if you get into mass PvP even with a high end computer even 24 on 24 is unplayable and overall the PvP feels pointless as the combat isn't even fun.

    The combat that was supposed to be "real time skill based," but frankly, it's just like playing DDR in an MMO for melees and the casting in this game is boring as ever.  PvP is watered down into who has the most AoE casters and healers.  Melees get the hardcore shaft as half of their combos don't land in mass PvP and they lag the most and primarily do single target burst damage which isn't nearly as effective as just AoE nuking (Oh omit the barbarian from the broken melees, they just 1 shot every class in PvP, so they're balanced .)

    So with my faltering interest in AoC, I have looked past WAR's more traditional combat.  I have researched alot of things that I like about the game and feel myself gaining more interest in the game I swore I'd never play, and that I bashed on these forums, than the one I anticipated for years and came up with empty promises. 

    So in conclusion after all this rambling...the title says it all...

WAR owns. Period (personal opinion of course don't flame)

I feel the same as the OP.  I thought "I would never play this WOW clone" After checking out the beta at a friends house for only about 45 min total.  Im sold.  The graphics arent my personal fav. , but the gameplay and features is what sold me. 

Disclaimer*

Thats from only 45 min of actual playtime.  Things could flop just as easily as AOC did.

Ahh I see you mentioned no real death penalties for AoC...the same will be true for WAR. WAR is focused more on being a fun game, not a reality (when it comes to the PvP at least. PvE covers the world/immersion part). I don't have problems with that, in a continuous epic war the death penalty only slows you down, but unfortunately I know some people do. It's more about focusing on the big picture. If you were hindered by a penalty for dying (and you will be dying...) how effective could you truly be for the realm?

As for the rest, you really have to look past the auto-attack to start seeing the gems here. Many glance at it, say "auto-attack in a fantasy setting with orcs and dwarves LAWL WoW CLONE LAWL". So, let them go play whatever they want, we don't need 'em. But I'm glad you're seeing the good things about WAR...everyone needs to see the good and the bad and then make a decision (until we can try it out at least!)

no real death penaltie eh?, you can always delete your most valuable item when you die, but of course its about everyone losing something when they die, not just you

Originally posted by Ascension08

Ahh I see you mentioned no real death penalties for AoC...the same will be true for WAR. WAR is focused more on being a fun game, not a reality (when it comes to the PvP at least. PvE covers the world/immersion part). I don't have problems with that, in a continuous epic war the death penalty only slows you down, but unfortunately I know some people do. It's more about focusing on the big picture. If you were hindered by a penalty for dying (and you will be dying...) how effective could you truly be for the realm?

As for the rest, you really have to look past the auto-attack to start seeing the gems here. Many glance at it, say "auto-attack in a fantasy setting with orcs and dwarves LAWL WoW CLONE LAWL". So, let them go play whatever they want, we don't need 'em. But I'm glad you're seeing the good things about WAR...everyone needs to see the good and the bad and then make a decision (until we can try it out at least!)

 

The no death penalty doesn't bug me in AoC as much as the no benefit to PvP does, I know this wont be the case in WAR.  I love PvP, I'll PvP just for the fun of it...however AoC has no benefit to PvP and the combat isn't even fun, so what's the point?

One thing WAR is definitely going to be full of is ex-AoC players, that is for sure.

You know, it is a shame that WAR is not ready for release yet, as right now is the perfect time. In the wake of AoC's disastrous launch, and well ahead of WotLK's presumably fantastic launch, WAR could really clean up, You would get all of the people Funcom turned away and all of the bored players from Blizzard's game, too.

Welcome to the WAR!  Be sure to wave at my corpse on the battlefield!  It'll be there often enough!  hehe

Originally posted by Sornin

One thing WAR is definitely going to be full of is ex-AoC players, that is for sure.

You know, it is a shame that WAR is not ready for release yet, as right now is the perfect time. In the wake of AoC's disastrous launch, and well ahead of WotLK's presumably fantastic launch, WAR could really clean up, You would get all of the people Funcom turned away and all of the bored players from Blizzard's game, too.

AoC actually had a very good launch, people were online for days before any downtime and there weren't many server issues if any at all...The big downfall is when people got to endgame and said "wtf is this?"  Fundamental flaws that may not be repairable.