Warhammer: Age of Reckoning Beta

Hyncharas,

A lot of us have been playing in either the closed beta or the semi closed beta for Collectors Edition players. The game is great.

The most succinct way to describe it is that it's the best parts of WoW and DAOC in one game. Of course there's much more to it than that... There's tons of info online now that the NDA is lifted so you can really find out as much as you can.

As for try before you buy, well there's rarely a game these days that you can play without forking over $40-70 for be it on PC, Xbox, PS3, or Wii.

Everyone's mileage will vary, but for me, this game is going to kick ass.

 

I'm a big fan of the warhammer fantasy world. Hell I read novels on the subject
Speaking of which, pick up blackhearts omnibus. Freakin great read.
Anyway, I've tried getting in on beta an didn't get an invite. If the game is too much like daoc, I probably won't be interested though. I did love the battlegrounds in daoc though. Just hated the grind.
Let me know how it goes boys. I may check it out.

 

I started the beta about a week ago. Only got to start a cpl classes and get up to around 4, so defintely haven't seen enough to give it a proper judgement. But off the bat, its likely a no for me. I still got the same feeling as I did in AoC, where your character just seems out of place in the environment. Like the environment is drawn, then your character is and the two never quite mesh together. Going through the forrests and jumping over obsticles just didn't feel right. Which is kind of suprising since DaoC was so fluid.

I do love the public quests, where giants and dragons will just spawn and everyone joins in. But even these appear to be non-stop scripting sequences and I just saw the same ppl doing them over and over farming them basically. We'll see, they are updating a ton everyday but I have a feeling its still going to be a rocky launch.

 

I'm in for sure.

The Public Quests are nice but I really dont see any point in farming them. Only the top 3-5 people win loot and the loot list is always the same. So, once you've gotten loot once or twice there is no point. The XP isnt that good really compared normal quests considering how much time they take.

I only played during the preview weekend so I obviously cant comment on how things are at higher levels but I can say I didn't feel like I was grinding at all. The quests were fairly simple; Go kill 3 of these and 3 of those, talk to this guy, collect 4 of these, etc... but if you actually read the quests they somehow make the quests seem more than that. Leveling was fairly quick and there seemed to be almost no downtime.

The pvp in the game felt more like WoW than DAoC. Instanced Battle Ground with objectives, first to 500 points wins, etc... It was fun but I'm more looking forward to the open realm RvR at higher levels. Still, its not a bad way to allow lowbies to level while still getting a taste of what RvR is like.

 

check your PMs gor

 

WAR is here.
Open Beta starts today.

 

yeah i downloaded it today as well, been playing around on a zealot but it seems like a good game so far

 

Can someone get me a key. I can get a copy of the beta but being in Japan FilePlanet wont let me get a key.

 

So what is the consensus? Should i get my preorder ready or not?

 

I will put my 2 cents in. Ive played WoW for the last 4 years and I get to a point where I will quit for a few months, new patch comes out, I re-subscribe and try it again until I burn through the new content, then there is nothing left so I quit again.

I have 3 lev 70's a Hunter (decked out in T5/T6 and Badge gear) a Feral Druid (decked out in PVP/Arena epics and badge gear), and a Resto Shaman (decked out in T5/Badge gear), I have seen everything except Sunwell between all of my chars all pre-TBC and post-TBC. My point behind all of this is WoW just isnt changing, it is NOTHING but gear progression, yes some might say that this is the only way to keep people playing but it is not it. Look at what they are introducing in the WoTLK xpac -sieges, siege engines and supposedly world PVP objectives that actually mean something. To me, its a little to late.

Here is where WAR comes in, I was lucky enough to start playing Beta back in February of this year (bro-in law got a key) and I could honestly say that it was ROUGH even not so long ago, but now I am in the open Beta and boy is it pretty and polished, and here is the kicked they have IN game the siege, the siege engines and the PVP objectives, they have gear you get for accomplishing PVP goals, heck even the opposing faction when you kill them they drop loot, so it isnt based around hack and slash PVE and then carebear PVP.

Your keep that a side can control will give the whole area a buff based on who controls it, you can only buy special gear with great stats in the keep when your side controls it (think Halaa faction items) but this gear actually means something and you can use multiple siege weapons to take and hold these keeps (burning oil, catapults, battering rams) Your King who sits on the throne when the keep is controlled actually drops REALLY good loot when he dies so there is are numerous reasons to actually storm the keeps with big groups. All of this means that there are other things to do other than gear progression.

The class balance. Right now, its meh, but the classes actually mean something. Take a Tank for example, they actually Tank in PVP, a taunt ability will actually pull your enemies attention to you if he is heading to a healer, a DPS detaunt ability will actually debuff the person attacking you as well as the stated reasons to use it in PVE. In essence there are no wasted skills in this game, each ability is as effective in PVP as it is in PVE. Also the collision detection is a huge benefit here, what this means is people can actually use strategy when defending the healers or a certain objective whether it be a keep flagpoint or a doorway or what, if you have 5 tanks in the frontline of a doorway and a few healers behind them, then its going to take ALOT of work to get by them to an objective instead of just zergging through them to get at the healer (but hey dont fforget you do have siege weapons at your disposal) I mean you should never be able to run through an enemy, just isnt viable in any PVP game. This adds huge strategical points and actually makes the game more fun.

Damage wise, each class doesnt do damage in the sense where you can be one or two shot by the class of the moment. The pure damage classes still takes alot of time trying to kill you whereas the utility classes actually have utility in numerous ways. CC isnt overpowered like other MMO's in the sense that no one can be stunlocked, and movement hindering abilities can be broken by certain abilities and stats. All in All it feels like PVP actually means something, not a social sport that it has become like WoW's arena.

Customization is pretty similar to WoW's because you have three specialty trees you can specialize in depending on how you want your class to progress but there is also renown points you can spend which is gained by PVPing that further progresses your character because after all this is a game about War not like "World of Warcraft" which has no War at all, heck even during questing it relies on opposing factions to work together (Gates of AQ questline anyone) Character looks customization is really cool too, after doing certain quests or certain unlocks by accomplishing goals in certain degrees players can earn trophies which you can attach to your armor and it makes it stand out that much more so people can actually see your accomplishments by looking at your character running towards them about to chop there head off, you might can tell than person has killed Dragon "X" because he has her head hanging off his belt. Just stuff like this makes the game stand out that much more.

I can keep on, but I would be rambling and I am obviously a fanboy, but heck 4 years of playing WoW and I will never look back once I start this game, it just offers so much more to do than grind faction to get gear "X" then raid dungeon "Z" to get gear "Y" which is only a few points better than gear "X". Whats the point?

 

WoWs engame = grind 4-5 months for rep and uber l33t gear. Then you get a patch with gear thats 10% better and guess what, you get to repeat that again for 4-5 months, then when you finish getting all of that uber gear, hey lets do it again, over and over and over..

The PvP systems basicly the same, grind honor for 4-5 months get the best gear, then they put more gear in thats 10% better and you do it over and over and over...

Doac / War = spend a few months leveling / getting gear, then spend years bashing the shit out of all your enemys in a massive war, taking there keeps, relics, citys and so on gaining new abilitys through your pvp experiance.

Pretty funny I can still log into daoc after barely playing it for the last 2 years, and having gear thats 3+ years old and im still competative there... that game like war dont require a constant braindead grind to keep people playing, it actualy has a meaninfull, constantly changing and fun endgame to play.

In short Wow = grind grind grind grind grind grind... daoc/war = pure fun !

 

^^ Doom said in 3 paragraphs what I couldnt even say in my 10 paragraphs and essay.



In short WAR is fun...Thats what a good game should boil down too, not a job where you have to work, work, work just to have +3 more stats on a certain item.

 

Pre-Ordered. You guys convinced me now i got to get people that i live with the buy it so that i have people to play with all the time because of the stupid time difference.

 

As much as I like WAR, everybody enjoys their own thing. I know WAR will do well, but it's not going to be a "WoW Killer". I think they'll hit and sustain 800,00+ subs for the first 6 months, we'll see after that. It still makes WoW 6 times bigger.

The most fun I ever had in WoW was when I was hard core raiding. It was a challenge and an adrenaline rush to finally beat a boss that had been kicking your ass for hours on end for the past week or two. Not to mention the sense of accomplishment you get from a coordinated 40 person raid.

But WoW is a PvE game and will never be anything but. That's not a negative statement, just a fact.

In DAOC the most fun I had was running with 7 good friends in a little group looking for people to poke in the face. That was a great time and I spent many hours doing that.

I haven't seen the raiding content in WAR, but I have a hard time believing it will be on the level of WoW. But there's no comparing the PvP elements, WAR kicks WoWs ass. The scenarios are better, there's RvR, and it's just more fun.

I haven't seen end game, so I really don't know yet, but if the game play holds up to the earlier levels, I'm really going to enjoy WAR for a long time. Like I did DAOC and WoW.

 

What server and side do you all plan on playing. I more for destruction and i think on an open rule set server.

I normally play on the good side but i feel like going evil this time.

 

I will be playing destruction on the ungrim server with a few friends from DAoC. Let me know where you guys will be.