Impressions and Reviews

Keero

Tribe of Judah Membership Administrator
Please explain your experiences with the game, what you would rate it, and why you think others should play it. I'm still not sold. :p
 
So far I have really enjoyed the game. I believe that it is more polished now that WoW was at launch. The RvR is fun and you can start it right away at level 1 by q'ing for a scenario. Once you get higher level, taking an enemy Keep (T3 ones are massive) is the most fun I have had in an MMO in a lonf time.

Pro's

Classes
They are each unique, yet at the same time effective in RvR. I have played healers in the past in MMO's and have been bored to tears. I tried a Runepriest the other night, joined a Redeemed party. We rocked the HOUSE! It was so much fun with a Runepriest. I have also tried the Swordmaster, Ironbreaker, Witch Hunter, Warrior Priest, and Bright Wizard. They are all entertaining to the point I will have a hard time choosing at launch.

RvR
It is too much fun with a group of people playing against others. All I can say it is the best time playing an MMO ever.

Mythic
During Beta, they have genuinely listened to teh feedbakc of the community and changed things for the better. They seem intent on putting out a really well polished and fun game. It is polished now with both PvE content and RvR content.

Dwarfs
Nuff said.

Cons

Crafting
I am not much of a crafter, never have been, never will be. However the crafting in this game seem really weak and not very well done in some aspects. My view could be distorted because of my dislike for the grind that all crafting in any MMO eventually becomes.

Classes MIA
Oh Hammerer, where art thou my Hammerer! I was really looking forward to this class and never got to try one. (Yanked outta Beta before I got my invite :(). Hopefully Mythic has plans to look into the mechanics and released the four missing classes. Tier 1 is hard on Empire in RvR w/o a Tank. Latter Tiers become more populated with all the Order races that it balances out.

Population

Destruction outnumbers Order. Not because Destruction is more effective in RvR, but because it is "cool" to play them for most people.

I really enjoy the game. Way better than WoW ever was for me. I would also like to thank those of the guild in Beta. Never felt so welcomed in a new guild ever.
 
Of course the game is based around PvP (RvR) which is very cool with me, however, I don't seem to see very much in PvE content, I see basic quests, Public Quests, and Crafting, but the overall PvE content seems limited...am I making a correct assumption...?
 
Here are my "ahem" completely unbiased scientific reasons you shouldn't play Warhammer...

1. It's not TF2.
2. It's not TF2.
3. Monthly Fees.
4. Each box contans life sucking parasites cleverly disguised as a entertaining game.
5. No Mighty Gerbil adorableness... well maybe there will be some low level gerbil like monsters but nothing near as adorable as the real thing.
6. It's NOT TF2.
7. and...um... playing Warhammer makes you... um fat, unpopular and um dead and stuff :p.

Though I may live to regret it, isn't there a free trial period on warhammer so you can try it before you buy it or was that only in the beta?
 
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4. Each box contans life sucking parasites cleverly disguised as a entertaning game.

With so many hours as Spy, I think you would know a thing or two about life sucking things inside clever disguises, no? D: "Top shelf!" Don't worry, you can all ways count on me to help burn things.*

How's the grind in the game? Is it Korean style, or more akin to Guild Wars, that is, quest/missions give you your large amount of experience? Ooh, how are the dances in-game like too?

*Except on days starting with a M,T,W, and F, no holidays, and no, not on your birthday either.
 
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On the PvE stuff,

I have been playing the longest I think. I have never run out of things to do in PvE. The only challenge comes when you get "behind" the curve in beta and don't have people to help finish the last stages of public quests. Otherwise, I have never lacked for quests or places to quest.

I will add that there were some really really buggy areas that made me want to stop questing but they are all fixed it seems.

On grinding-

Too much to do to feel the grind. leveling has many aspects and you actually have two or three level components. The main xp and Renown xp are the main ones. However, influence is alot of fun to level in most public quests. Really I am level 11 RR 11 and it happened in less than a week. i don't know how it happened either.

On crafting-

It might come later, however, Mythic has said we will not have grind or power craft leveling. They want crafting to be a normal as you go along part of the game, not a I have to craft today to level, type of activity.

On MMO's in general-

Between those of us in the beta atm, we have played every major title that has come out since UO (the first MMO with graphics) and we all agree it is tons of fun and has great potential. It is not currently perfect. It has holes and weaknesses. However, we do all agree it is the most complete MMO at this stage of development that we have played.

On Redeemed-

God is drawing some really high quality people to Redeemed. We have great players and great people. As much fun as playing TF2 is with Toj'ers, it is hard to compare the MMO experience with a FPS.
 
First off, no dances.....BUT every race has their own /special that is hilarious.

Pros

1. The game is very teambased. Playing with our closed beta guild, we've had some fantastic nights of open world RvR and queuing for scenarios. Traveling between the starter points to join others was not that bad either, making it realistic to join one another at as low a level as 3 while playing completely different races.

2. There are many different types of classes to choose from, all of which are very different to what you may be used to. I've been playing the Ironbreaker Dwarf for the most part but have done some leveling of 4 other toons as well. I used to be a main tank in Redeemed on WoW, and was used to not being able to put out the damage numbers that other classes did. In the Ironbreaker role I have truly felt like a tank with great power, dealing damage and taking hits in stride. I'm not sure how to explain it, but the character development is impeccable.

3. PVE has been spiced up with the addition of PQ's. After doing the first one, we wanted to keep doing it over and over (they reset after 1.5 minutes) to get first place and the best loot. While they can be overcrowded in the starting areas, making it more difficult to take a first place prize away, the later areas seem to be less crowded and often easier to win. I found one last night that had no one else participating, and proceeded to do the first two stages of it on my own. There are still normal quests with normal experience given out, which helps to generate the money\items necessary to leveling.

4. Tome unlocks. This is a new area for this genre, and something that has become especially fun for me. There are so many random tome unlocks, you never know what will happen if you try something out of the ordinary. Click on everything!! I found 2 books last night in a place I'd never been before, and what do you know...tome unlocks for learning something out of each book. Try clicking on your picture 100 times, tome unlock = Ow My Eye. Encountering any beasts\people in-game, tome unlocks. Too many to run down the list, but a blast to try and find those little things.

5. Siege a keep? Well, while I can't officially say that I have been in a group that was successful at doing so, I can say that I was in a large group (with our guild included) raiding a keep. Nothing quite like seeing 20 of your fellow realm mates taking out guards, using a battering ram to smash the front gates, and storming the interior of the keep. I would really love to see this happen, and then have a guild banner placed to have flags put out with our guild logo on them.

Cons

1. Traveling from one place to another in lower levels isn't so bad, but once you get into the double digits, traveling to other areas can take a bit if you aren't near a warcamp. The "flee" button gets spammed pretty often during this process.

2. RvR is soooooo addicting, you really don't want to spend time doing much else.

***Really can't think of any others off the top of my head ATM.***

I will say that playing with the people that are currently in closed beta in our guild has been a blast. The people are exceptional, and with the experience we gain from this we will be happy to help the newer people joining gain the same experiences we have had. It's exciting getting to experience what all this game has to offer, and I look forward to each new level\area to see what else can be done.


***Side note***

You can enter "cannon-mode" while standing next to cannons, ballistas, other large weapons and utilize them to your advantage. Believe me, its a blast! Get a member of the opposite faction to follow you a little too close to base, and have a friend shoot em down with the cannon. It'll teach them who not to mess with anymore!
 
A big, fat ditto to what Icthus has said. War is comparible to LOTRO as far as polish goes and has less lag. I'd have to say that were it takes the edge is in gameplay. I think that this is where FPS'ers will really appreciate the game, as in my brief time with the game, it appears to reward the use of effectively applied tactics (class viability makes this immensely possible) in RVR (pvp) more than any MMO I have played.
 
... You can enter "cannon-mode" while standing next to cannons, ballistas, other large weapons and utilize them to your advantage. Believe me, its a blast!
LOL, get it?

OK...

Pros -

  • It is not TF2 - The amount of time you put into the game shows. <Smiles at the gerbil.>
  • The landscaping is near perfection.
  • If they made finding quest objectives any easier in this game, you would complete them on site, when you get them - it is that easy to find objectives.
  • RVR - Do I really need to elaborate?
  • Renown. It gives you more than just gear.
  • The feeling that you are fighting for a common cause makes people want to RVR.
  • The game is not gear based, but more of a skill based one.
  • Keeps!?!
  • There are "battle grounds" and RVR (world PVP) that people of all levels can partake in.
  • Guilds can form tangible Alliances here.
Cons -

  • There is no real way to see the entire continent you are on, you cannot see where you are and other members of your group who may be in another location on one map.
  • Disproportionate faction populations.
  • That is all I can think of.
 
I'd have to echo pretty much all of what's been mentioned above. Some things that stand out to me, though:

Class mechanics. Everyone should be able to find at least one class (OK, probably at least half a dozen) that appeals to them. The specific mechanics used by the various classes vary widely, and are very innovative. The mechanics also encourage fun and effective game play. Let's take a look at healers, for example. There are 3 styles of healers in WAR, and each faction has one of each.

Goblin Shaman/High Elf Archmage - These are hybrid healers/nukers. They use a mechanic whereby each healing spell adds to a counter that builds up nuking ability, and vice versa. So when playing a Shaman I'd start out a fight by nuking several times in a row, and that would give me a bonus to my next healing spell. Depending on the spell, it would generally be a lower cast time or a larger amount healed. So, for example, cast 5 nuke spells, and then my big heal was instacast. Or if I need to be healing, then I'd throw in an instacast nuke every few heals to take advantage of that. It really encourages you to fulfill both your nuking and healing duties.

Chaos Zealot/Dwarf Rune Priest - These probably feel like the most effective healers to me, but they still deal pretty respectable damage when needed. They get a mix of heals, damage spells, and buffs/shields/support-type spells. Their buffs are cool, in that when a character is buffed, depending on which buff is placed on them, it actually gives them a clickable ability. For example, Icthus' Rune Priest buffed my Ironbreaker last night with a STR/INT buff, and while I was buffed I got an extra ability to deal 75 instacast damage to my target with a 60-90 second cooldown. Kind of a cool mechanic. They also get area buffs, that give a certain buff to all group mates within a certain radius of the buff. While they can deal damage, they probably don't deal as much as the other healer-types, but are very tough in RvR as they can heal through crazy damage and stay alive long enough for the cavalry to arrive and bail them out.

Dark Elf Disciple/Empire Warrior Priest - These are the melee healers. They use Action Points (which replaces WoW's mana bar for all classes) to power their melee attacks, and Soul Essence/Righteous Fury to power their heals. They start with a full pool of their healing points, and obviously each heal uses up some of these. The way they refill this pool is by attacking. Each melee attack refills a certain number of these points. So you can heal, but in order to keep healing, you need to be mixing it up in melee (although you can also covert AP to healing points in case no enemies are in melee range). Their heals tend to be very quick casting, as spell pushback would otherwise be a big problem, and most of their heals are HOTs or group heals. They also get several melee attacks that turn a percentage of their damage into various healing effects. They also both get other leech attacks (STR, AP, and such).

So you can see with just the example of healers, that one archetype has several different mechanics that play very differently.

Class effectiveness. There are no "support" classes in WAR, but virtually every class has some support abilities. Most of us have played a character class at some point that, while necessary for group success, wasn't terribly fun to play. They don't have that class in WAR. I've played multiple classes of every archetype in beta, and they ALL have fun stuff to do. Everyone can deal damage, everyone can support their neighbor in one way or another. They don't all do each equally well, but if you find yourself standing around with nothing to do in battle, then you're doing it wrong.

RvR dynamics. Mythic has deliberately tuned RvR so that fights last more than 5 seconds. There's not going to be any Rogue popping stealth behind you, stun locking you, and dropping you before you can do anything. RvR fights, even 1 on 1, last 20-30 seconds. This means that you actually get a chance to use your skills and strategy. And nobody has an "I win" button. In fact, what stealth exists is extremely limited, so you won't find stealthed gank squads running around in the open RvR areas waiting for unsuspecting victims.

And while there is "crowd control", you won't find yourself losing control of your character. Can you be snared? Yes. Can you be feared all over the zone? Nope. Nobody has fun when they die without a chance to do anything, and that doesn't happen in WAR.

Consequently, tactics matter in RvR. Use terrain, use flanking maneuvers, use collision detection to block enemies from getting to your back row. Get creative, because it WILL make a difference.

The bottom line is that this game is insanely fun, and it's only getting more so as we're getting more people and running in guild groups. I tend to be more of a PvE player than PvP. I enjoy PvP, but usually it takes an effort for me to go seek it out. Not in this game. Especially after the last few nights. I think I'm going to have to force myself to step out of the RvR areas and go find PvE to do at times, just because running RvR with guildies is so much stinking fun. And this is even before we get to keeps!
 
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Infact, what stealth exists is extremely limited, so you won't find stealthed gank squads running around in the open RvR areas waiting for unsuspecting victims.

Hooray for no I Win buttons!

Yeah, I'd heard people talking about how "Leveling doesn't feel like a horrible grind" But it's so true! I have yet to do something longer than I wanted to do, or be forced to level down a single path. I can quest, I can do scenerios, I can RVR, etc. Everything gets me XP and gold! And the ability for me to queue up for a scenario from ANYWHERE, and then be returned to the exact spot I was, makes it sooo much better! If i get tired of doing a quest, I don't have to burn my hearthstone, walk over to the pvp area, queue up, wait for it to pop. I can keep questing until the second it pops. THEN, when it's over i'm right where i was to begin with!
 
I'm cool with you Warhammer peoplez I've just become disillusioned from my past experiences with MMORPGs and RPG games. Guild Wars, Final Fantasy and the the (blech) free MMORPGs Silkroad, Mabingoni, 9 Dragons all of which I've played more than TF2. I'm sure Warhammer will have at least one good thing going for it Keero, a good group of people to play with ^.^
 
Rephrase of deleted post:

Maybe the games you listed are just not your MMO cup of tea, sometimes you just have to try more until you find the one you like, I have been through...I don't know, at least 50 MMOs, and only played 3 longer than a month...
 
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