WAR (Warhammer Online)

Hello folks,

So after being engrossed in WAR all weekend I thought I would come by and talk a little about my impressions.

First, I just want to say I haven't had this much fun in, uh, I can't remember.  Maybe DAOC RVR classic days, except even more fun than that.  There are still some glitches that need to be fixed, but the game is so much more polished than AOC.  I have total confidence these bugs will get fixed.  I also feel that Mythic/EA has a hit on their hands here.  This isn't blind fanboism.  This is just my opinion, and I don't expect everyone to agree.  Its just THAT much fun for me.

When they said you didn't need to PVE at all to level, they meant it.  At the same time, there is great incentive to do PVE with the PQs and rewards available.  I haven't played a game in a long time that really felt his comfortable in PVE and PVP.  I'm very impressed with how the questing, PQs and RVR just move along as you level, and intermingle.  I can't remember being bored once during the whole weekend.  In fact, I tried so many classes and leveled them all to 10 or 11 just to get a feel for each starting area and race quests.  I may not be able to say I'm a hard core expert on each class past level 10, but I have a real good idea of each race starting area and the PQs.  I'm not lying by saying I think each and every one of them was interesting and fun.

I can point out some things that need to be fixed (in my opinion):

1.   Pet classes seem to have a lot of problems.  Pathing for pets isn't working so good.  Also, my pet would just disappear a lot or my pet control bar would disappear even though I had a pet summoned.  I also felt that the pets were a little underwhelming power-wise, but that could be because the pathing and disappearance of the pets negates a good portion of their DPS or utility.  Still, even with these problems, many good players stuck with their pet classes and did just as good as me in RVR and Scenarios.  There are some really good things these pet classes can offer, and I think they will be very popular when the game goes live and this stuff is working better.

2.  I think they need to improve archer armor or something.  They don't seem to do as much damage as other ranged DPS but seem to go down pretty easy.  Considering I only got my shadow warrior to level 10 I could be wrong.

3.  Some of the NPC behavior can be strange, specifically the guards in RVR areas.  Did anyone else notice this?

There are other minor glitches, but honestly they are so minor and I'm sure these will be ready at launch because this client is not even close to the latest version.  I'll be honest and say even if they left the game as is right now, I would still play this game for a long long time.  I know that sounds like blind fanboism, but its just so damn fun what can I say?  Hate WAR or me if you want to, but its only my opinion.

I didn't even get to try a siege.  I wish I had more time to do so, but on September 7th I'll be ready for more.  Here are some quick things about classes I played:

1.  Warrior Priest and DoC:  Both of these are exactly the type of hybrid I've always wanted to play.  If you played WoW and wanted that pally that was a holy warrior, or that evil paladin, then one of these classes has your name on it and I'm not kidding.  Seriously fun to play, and if played well a big help to any team.

2.  Squig Herder - even with the pet problems I mentioned above, the utility and fun of this class just can't be ignored for a pet class.  I really love the different squigs and even the things the squig herder says.

3.  Shaman - Powerful class with good damage and good healing.  I definately see a lot of good players picking this class.

4.  Ironbreaker - DAMN.  This guy is tough.  We had one surrounded by like eight people that were hitting him and he STILL took out one of us before he croaked.  He must have built up some serious grudges.  If you wanted to play a tank in PVP or PVE you can't go wrong here.

5.  Rune Priest - This little dude is very hard to kill if he plays good.  I really enjoyed him and didn't feel underpowered or underused at any time.  Decent damage too!

Now on to my biggest and only real GRIPE for the preview weekend:

PLEASE STOP MAKING SO MANY BRIGHT WIZARDS!!!  COULD THERE BE ENOUGH OF YOU BUGGERS?    I'm not exaggerating, at least on the server I played on, that there were TONS of bright wizards - more than any other Order class by far.  The funny thing is - yes they do awesome damage, but they are a total glass cannon.  A good player can do wonders, especially with some tactics and or a healer, but we just waded into the sea of bright wizards and decimated them from behind over and over again.  Maybe if they had some warrior priests or rune priests they would do better?

OK one more gripe and I'll stop.  PEOPLE - please if you see a standoff fight, use some creativity and strategy.   Don't run into the same entrance every time.  Flank your enemies, use terrian and think smart.  Standing on one side and shooting ranged attacks while the other side does the same is just silly.  I took a black orc, a marauder and a Disciple and we held the front door of a building for a half hour from a horde of enemies that couldn't get in.  Bodies were piled up by the tons outside the door.  Eventually they broke through, but it was a lot more fun than standing apart from eachother, having ranged classes shoot pot shots while one team runs back to the guards... 

OK I'm done.  I can't wait for WAR.  Its not coming anymore.  It's HERE in my opinion.

Regards,
A very satisified pre-order customer

I have to agree with you.  Over the years of getting shafted by half assed DEVs, I took this open beta weekend preview with very little to look forward to.

Needless to say, I havent had this much fun in an MMO since DaoC early days.

True, there are some minor glitched they need to work on, but damn, Im impressed so far. Its the first AAA MMO that has come out in the last two years that hasnt been in a shitty state of affairs.

Just proves to you that developers can create a smooth MMO at launch.

Yeah guys, I was initially a bit put off by the AI, but once I realized that would be corrected and got past it the game really amazed me. 

This game is the real deal.

I tried almost all the classes and I have no idea which one I will make my main. Gonna be a tough decision cause they were all so much fun.

Same here.  I can't figure out which classes I will focus on.  I made the mistake of trying out an engineer, and now I have yet another class I need to make on launch day.  That is 6 now .

My biggest challenge is to convince my friend to join in.  I told him RvR would be completely awesome, but I honestly knew he would be turned off bythe combat.  Plus he is still suffering from some Age of Conan combat system withdrawls.  So once he saw the slow (wait 3 seconds between each swing) combat, he said I would have to beta it some more and he would have to see how it is on launch or after.

But he really loved the graphics.  He said they were a huge imporvement over WoW.  He also said "FINALLY, I can play a goblin.  Oh snap! He has glowing eyes and bitten off ears and $%^!  I'm almost sold just for that."

I reallly hope the combat gets a slight boost in speed and the enemy AI becomes smarter.

I'm pretty set on my class.  Warrior Priest.  No wait, Disciple.  Scratch that - Ironbreaker.  OK, I guess I'm not so set!    Very hard choice when all of the classes are interesting and fun to play.

Bright Wizards are not glass cannons, they are glass WMDs that is why so many people are playing them.

That's fine by me, as long as they don't mind taking a lot of dirtnaps.

Originally posted by Locklain

Bright Wizards are not glass cannons, they are glass WMDs that is why so many people are playing them.

The preview weekend was awesome and the different types of PVP battles was great. The game stil needs some work but its in far better shape right now than AOC currently is so I'm hooked. Can't wait for OB to start, I'm having withdraw's now LOL.

I found the Bright wizard to be alot of fun as well as the Soceress and was suprised how resilient they are, kind of reminds m of the Warlock I had in WOW a couple years ago.