Originally posted by TribeofOne

Originally posted by boojiboy

That is going to be the trick.  With my limited play time I am obessed with PotA progression, as are a lot of other high level players.

 

well the established community of players who have stuck with the game and plan to stay with the game MUST be willing to reach down to to any new/lower level players with help like with mentoring or alts. otherwise vanguard can not count on any significant growth from new customers. IMO the influx/churn  of "new players" is not of  a self sustaining size any more.  That was the whole purpose of adding mentoring, i thought.

/shrug heh but what do I know  :)

Agreed.  The reality though is that Vanguard is top heavy and the level 50-55 crowd has got  alot to do.  Mentoring helps and guilds created specifically for the purpose of being a good home for new players help a lot as well.  When I log in, there might be 30-40 guildies on line and I can jump into any number of things... but it's all 50+ content.  In a guild that is designed to welcome new folks into the game you'll find folks doing content from 1 to 50.

That is going to be the trick.  With my limited play time I am obessed with PotA progression, as are a lot of other high level players.

I did a lot of soloing with my Psionicist.  Very tricky, but with a good grasp of all the abilities a Psi has, they can be very, very effective solo'ers.  1-man dungeon crawls are even possible at the higher levels, but you've got to use every crowd-control tool available to you.

I did a lot of soloing with my Bloodmage.  Doable, but pretty slow.

Sorcs can solo easy and just become absolutely brutal at level 55. 

I used mentoring for the first time this past weekend with some friends that needed a healer.  I mentored down my lvl 52 blood-mage and had a blast.  It works well AND surprisingly you can still gain exp.  Obviously, it wasn't  alot for a level 52 but it was a lot of fun to group with friends, not have to worry about the level difference and do a crawl in a dungeon I've never been in before.

Originally posted by sidhaethe

Hi, I am trying to persuade my better half to give Vanguard a try, since he is a dyed in the wool single player sandbox guy and doesn't really like the MMOs he's played because they're too themepark for his tastes. I think Vanguard is the closest thing that could satisfy his desire to "see a mountain in the distance, start running, and eventually get there" in an MMO world.

The problem is, as a single player gamers, he's spoiled on graphics, and most MMOs short of Age of Conan (way too theme-park) don't deliver. I played on a free trial a couple of years ago (before the Isle of Dawn) and all I remember is that on my admittedly cruddy laptop, the water in the Kojani starting area looked like a sea of blue marbles.... not very impressive, lol, so our view is kind of poisoned by that.

But we have better computers now, and I think this could be the game for us. My better half needs convincing, though, so I am here to ask a favor. Can anyone please link me to a few high-quality screenshots of bodies of water in-game? About five should do, and if there's a shot of someone in the water that would be great too.

I apologize for the demand, but I'm hoping to get good "proof" that this game looks great! Thank you in advance :).

I've got better stuff I can post when I get home.  The water graphics are a weak point in Vanguard..... it's only so-so.  The rest of the world is gorgeous and everything you see in Vanguard is actually there and you can go to it... no background paintings anywhere.

On by buddies Galleon fishing in unusally deep waters (secret fishing spot):

Guild hall party... the guild fleet and water in the background:

On my flying mount with Rahz Inkur in the background:

Originally posted by morpin

People have been perdicting VG's death based on new releases for while.

Lord of the Rings

Pirate of the Burning Sea

Age Of Conan

War

DarkFall

Chronicles of Spellborn

Fallen Earth

Aion

I think the Lord Of the Rings probably had the biggest impact.  The PvP games perhaps killed the Sartok server.

The one game I did not mention that probably hurt VG more than other was Free Realms.  Thats when SOE diverted all the VG developers to that project.

I dont see the game being killed by any new releases coming out, unless its a new game from SOE.

 

I agree.  Everytime a new MMO gets crapped out of the MMO game-mill someone predicts it will be the end of Vanguard.  With regard to PvE. Lord of the Rings is the only game that I know that people went to and did not return to Vanguard.  All the other games people grew bored within weeks and either returned to Vanguard or just kept rotating games.  I also think there is a pretty big group that seems to go back and forth between EQ1, EQ2 and Vanguard based on which game has the newest content release.

Vanguard isn't going anywhere... it still has three PvE servers doing well.

That is a very odd bug indeed Kiesten.

With regard to your UI being jumbled every time you log out and back in.... do you play in Windowed Mode?  If you do, then your desktop resolution needs to match your game resolution or else the jumbling of UI windows will occur.  I play in Windowed mode and have matched my desktop and game resolution at 2560x1600.  It's also important to make sure your game window is maximized prior to entering the world, or once again, UI windows will be out of place.

If you use a custom UI, you can save many different UI configurations and reload them whenever necessary.  I set my UI up differently for my different characters.  If you don't use a custom UI then simply typing /reloadui should put everything back in place.

Originally posted by Vyrolakos

Originally posted by Portland

its not "deside" its "Decide".... maybe you should visit an English teacher...
 

 

It's not "its", it's, "it's"... maybe you should visit an English teacher...

Classic :)

Vanguard is the anti-Wow.

Take full advantage of the Isle of Dawn to learn about all 3 major spheres along with harvesting.  It's a great place to learn the basics and get a feel for what you will like and won't like.  Vanguard takes patience to learn your class and the lore of Telon.

I don't think there has been one for quite some time.  I'm not sure when they will offer a free month to vets again.

When researching Aion, everything about it bored me.  Another cookie-cutter, disposable MMO to add to the list.  This genre is in the midst of an identity crisis.

Originally posted by Mardy

Originally posted by Shiseiten83

Currently I'm playing Aion, sooner or later i will find Aion bored as im a pve guy. So i would like to try Vanguard, how is the end game raid compared to wow ? Are there a lot of raids ? Was it as unique and interesting like some of the wow raids ? This is 1 of the major factors i will consider before buying Vanguard.

 

Since you asked about raid content, I'll answer specifically on just that.  Vanguard has a severe lack of raid content, it takes roughly a year and half up to two years in between raid content releases.  If raids is what you are looking for specifically, Vanguard isn't for you.

If someone is new to the game, and enjoys raiding, then it will be a very, very long time until they've gotten through the raid content in Vanguard.  There is a lot.  However, the veterans that have been playing VG for almost 3 years are looking forward to new content.. hopefully in the form of Stirhaad.

With regard to the Vi'Rak reference above.  We hit Vi'Rak at least a couple times a week.  It's complete, all the weapon and gear upgrades work.  There are some best in game mythical drops.  The place is very fun, it's a good old fashioned dungeon crawl with named and some great drops.  The bonus is that it can be done with any number of people.. a single group, 8 or 24.

Originally posted by morpin

The very best heroic items dropped from quests, raiding, and named bosses are better than the best crafted items, but not by too much. If  you rely on just dropped items you will have a lot of holes in your equipment.  

 

There are also a lot of 'speciality' items crafters make that even the best equipped raiders in the game will use.  Could be counterspelling gear for casters, a special weapon that a tank might use for a specific fight etc.  Always seems to be something new that crafters can make too. 

I always turn down random and unannounced invites.  PuG groups can work fine, but want to know what I am getting into first.

Some folks may prefer soloing or might be down-right anti-social.  Or they might be doing a certain quest-line on an alt and are enjoying the challenge of trying something solo.  I solo'd the entire Tricksters quest line to obtain the chamber key for helping my guild out for later Pantheon of the Ancients page collections.  But I also found myself having an unbelieveable amout of fun just seeing if I could do the entire questline solo.  Albeit I was level 55 doing a 40ish dungeon, but it was very fun as a Psionicist and I actually learned some new things about my class, my dps approach and my crowd control capibilities.

So when folks would send me an invite or ask if I wanted to group I would simply say that I was enjoying the challeging of going solo.  If I was in the way of a level appropriate group for the dungeon I would leave them to it and come back another time.

Originally posted by tryklon

Originally posted by Plaidpants

Originally posted by tryklon

 Aion looking grim? The servers are full of ppl and the first 30 days are already gone.... lol

This one is dead, and no use in trying to make ppl believe it will suddenly come to life because in your head "things are looking grim for Aion"... even because Aion RvR is 1000000000 times better than in WAR, and ive been there

 

Certainly is not - and I'm not subbed to either anymore.

Aion will dwindle just like WAR did after release. Tons of people have already quit. Now it will just slowly, but steadily decline.

 

here are the servers today at 17,45h....   enough said

I understand that you ppl have just like 5 servers in NA and other 5 in Euro, but lol, nevertheless...

All new releases or new launches look like that.

I think Ancient Port Warehouse (APW) is the best end-game raiding experience in any MMO, hands down.  Too much to go into here, but it is a lot of fun working through that dungeon with a good guild.

That said, Vanguard needs another APW type of experience for raiders who have completed APW.  Stirhaad could be the next APW but I don't remember if Halls of Shatter Souls and AAs are on the docket first or if they've moved up Stirhaad due to popular demand.

I think many people will agree that Vanguard is the best PvE MMO available.  I think if players understand the population dip from 20 to 40 and expect it then perhaps it won't be a rude surprise.  The quests, the world, the playerbase is just too spreadout in those levels.  Mentoring should be a nice way to group at those levels.  I'm looking foward to mentoring down with a few others to join a guildy in TK once they get to that dungeon.

I've played both, personally, I like VG much better.  Both have free trials I believe, I know VG does for sure.