WAR (Warhammer Online)

Now that the NDA is lifted, here is my review on overall gameplay, classes, class/realm balances and will answer any reply/questions that comes up.

REMEMBER this is the best analysis I can do and is purely my opinion, the ability names are off from my head and may not be accuate, if you dont agree or want to troll/flame/bash, your post will be ignored.

Overall gameplay:

The good -

The overall is pretty solid, there are alot of things to do. The Public quest(PQ) is very fun, the pvp is just awesome. RVR and keep battle is like DAoC and with siege and stuff. No spam skills (all skills have 1 second recharge delay). You dont have to PvE at all if you dont need to.

The bad -

The lag is horrible in RVR, espically in keep battle. Crash to desktop (CTD in mystic term) occurs every 60-90 mins. The game also dissconnect alot. The grindfest is still there if you focus on PvE( But when you got bored, you can always go to RVR/PVP). Most of the gears looks the same within the same tier. The crafting system is pretty useless and is not THAT FUN like in the podcast (but still there is only potion making and all the gather skill in beta)

My thoughts

The core gameplay is awesome and anyone played or wanted to play wont be disappointed. The PVE is lacking in my opinion, the quest is in easy mode (they marked the map for you). The tome of knowledge is good to keep track of things but is not really "wow, this is the new feature in our mmo and is so wonderful" hype in the video. Mystic knows the lag spike, crash, DC problem and hopfully will be fix in open beta. Many minor bugs here and there but overall it is more enjoyable and playable than AoC release (yes, WAR is still beta and I am sure more of the bugs will be fix before launch).

Classes:

The classes are very balanced, most of them also get a class ability. All classes got at least one range attack to chase. Most of the classes have a Dest version and an order verion, they have similar (if not the same) skill set.

Gameplay styles are as follow:

Magus <->  Engineer

These guys put turrets down and blast you from behind the enemy line.

Decent DPS, squish type.

Zealot <-> Rune Priest

These guys are pure healer, these guys keep everyone alive. Their heals are typical healer style without build up or other drawbacks (will explain later), also they can buff with mark/rune. The mark/rune are a stat buff + a skill (usually damage skill, either DD or DOT..etc).While people complains they dont do much damage, you can always spec into damage type and be decent DPS.

Marauder <-> Shadow Warrior

These guys are pure DPS. They can change form/stance for different style or situations. The core ability is similar but Marauder is melee and SW is range focus.

Witch Elf <-> Witch Hunter

These guys build up with attacks and release them with greater results. Witch Elf is melee and WH is melee and some ranged (their range can be buff with special bullets)

Sorceress <-> Blight Wizard

Pure Nuker, period. These guys are nuts in RVR, not that many sorceress than BW from what I seen. Every attack that use, they build up flame/soulmagic and have higher crit rate, more damages but also higher % on kaboom and do damages on yourself. Keep a healer friend nearby and they just nuts.

Disciple of Khaine <-> Warrior priest

These guys can heal, but in order to do it they need to melee and saved up points. Their heals are mostly HoT (Heal over time) and some big heals but need Morale (usually). Their dps is ok if you spec it well. A Melee/Healer Hybid class in my opinion.

Shaman <-> Arcmage

These guys are fun to play, they can do damages and they can heal. Everytime you nuke, you build up points for heal (in return bigger heals). Everytime you heal, you build up points for nuke (in return bigger nukes). Mage/Cleric hybid, weird to get to but the idea is new and fun to play.

Black Orc <-> Swordmaster

These guys can tank, is kind of like a Tank/DPS hybid, you combo your attack with something like - da good plan(small damage but open up to next combo) -> da great plan (middle damage and open up for finishing move) -> da BEST plan. Pretty fun to play if you like pressing 1 2 3 4.

Squiq Herder <-> White Lion

These are you pet classes, SH is range support and white lion is melee support. Play like necro in EQ, lock in WOW, Loremaster in LOTRO..etc...no not necro in AoC because you can only have one pet.

Ironbreaker

These are the special tank for order, their ability can make a buddy with a party member and do special skill (buff, damage shield, protect..etc) to them. Very solid tank, hard to take down if group with healer.

Chosen

These are the special tank for destr, their ability is aura. Good tank, similar to pally in other games without heals. Can also hold the line (+ dodge/block % to you and everyone behind you).

Realms and balances:

The order is sightly less people than Destr overall (the whole server, like 900 vs 750) in Beta, but you dont see zerg vs zerg in any battle, some places are just order dominated. Dont worry much about imbalance cause that not an issue at all (at least in beta). They usually play turtle near guards, inside keep, hit and run back to guard..etc. This is basically because of their classes are usually range focus. They have alot more healers and DPS (those Blight Wizard focus fire are just painful). Empire and Dark Elf dont suffer from no tanks in the realm like the other said, because their Warrior Priest and DOK are very hard to kill and can be off tank. IT is also very easy to travel to other realms, so you will see different races in your realms.

With the wall of text out of the way, feel free to ask any questions and I will try my best (within my knowledge) to answer them.

Why did this fall to the second page!?

Excellent, excellent information in here lilDevil. I liked the class summaries the best.

Bump to the top!

Thanks! I will answer any questions with my best knowledge when one arise.

Are Bright Wizards over played?  I plan on playing a Bright Wizard but don't want to be just 1 in 100 where as theres very few of another class.  Did you notice more bright wizards than other classes on order?

What classes would you say are the most popular on both order and destruction? 

Originally posted by Boosthungry

Are Bright Wizards over played?  I plan on playing a Bright Wizard but don't want to be just 1 in 100 where as theres very few of another class.  Did you notice more bright wizards than other classes on order?

 

What classes would you say are the most popular on both order and destruction? 

OP may disagree with me, but in my experiance each class is fairly even on numbers. Of course if you stay in the human area you will see more bright wizards but once everyone starts to mingle to cap keeps ect you will notice everything is fairly balanced population wise per class. Just like in the DE area Sorcs seem to be the most popular class. Once I took my sorc to the other two zone 1 and 2 area's I got comments all the time on "How cool sorcs where" and "wow, first time I have seen a sorc, cool".

It was pretty even, but recently there are alot of BW in the server. I made one too and went to RVR and scen, at least 5-6 BW. However, the battle is pretty even, if we got healers to back us up, we won. If we dont, we lost...fast.

Dont worry tho, this is still beta and many are trying things out (me included )

What other games have you played? And what class do you think is the best "solo" class?

When you say the PvP/RvR is excellent, does that mean the combat itself or the goals and aims of the PvP? What are the benefits to attaining land and are they balanced within the game? Is it fighting just for the sake of fighting?

Not being arguementative just wondering.

i do not 100% agree with everythign you said, BUT for the most part it is a very good write up

P.S. after the last patch I do not get ANY CTD's