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NOW LIVE! Into the Woods--new character species, eerie monsters, and haunting villains to populate the woodlands of your D&D games.
World of Warcraft open beta signups live--sort of!
- Thread starter Pielorinho
- Start date
Macbeth
First Post
I only got to play for 5 hours on a friend's account, just before the Open Beta closed (yesterday), but now I'm hooked. Played a 6th level Gnome Mage. Levelling was mercifully painless (6 levels in 5 or so hours, but it may have been easier since it was the beta). I had a great time, and I am now seriously considering playing WoW. If I do get on, I hope to see other EN Worlders.
Pielorinho
Iron Fist of Pelor
The levelling speed was reportedly the same as it'll be in retail, but of course it takes far longer to complete the higher levels: by level 14 or 15, it takes a couple hours of laid-back play to go up a level. (And by laid-back, I mean questing, fishing, checking out the auction house, chatting with friends, exploring, etc.)
C'mon, Tuesday!
Daniel
C'mon, Tuesday!
Daniel
CrusaderX
First Post
I was in the stress test back in September, and it played like a rather finished game back then. I haven't played since that stress test, though, so I'm wondering if the game changed much since then? I assume bugs got cleaned up, and that sort of thing, but is the game as of the September stress test pretty much the same game that we'll see next week? If there were any kind of major changes or additions, what were they?
As a veteran of quite a few MMORPG, I felt that it failed to answer the most pressing question, why play this MMORPG over any other? Of course, by nature of being a Blizzard game they may draw people who have never played an MMORPG and thus are not jaded and this question does not apply. I could not find anything here that was original or fresh over the benchmark of MMORPG, Dark Age of Camelot. WoW only advantage is the benefit of starting fresh compared to the entrenched player base of DAoC. Here are a few things that could use improvement:
1. More depth in character development and solo/group tactics.
2. Better balance of classes.
3. Rewards for Alliance vs. Horde war and closer scrutiny of PvP design.
4. More high level content, though I base this on others comments as I was only able to get to level 24 in the open beta.
5. Either tone down the dungeons or get rid of instances. I have come to dislike the supposedly revolutionary instances, maybe its just poor implementation.
Things I liked include: the beautiful graphics, both technically and stylistically, a robust quest system though the quality varies, and high level of polish even before release.
1. More depth in character development and solo/group tactics.
2. Better balance of classes.
3. Rewards for Alliance vs. Horde war and closer scrutiny of PvP design.
4. More high level content, though I base this on others comments as I was only able to get to level 24 in the open beta.
5. Either tone down the dungeons or get rid of instances. I have come to dislike the supposedly revolutionary instances, maybe its just poor implementation.
Things I liked include: the beautiful graphics, both technically and stylistically, a robust quest system though the quality varies, and high level of polish even before release.
mattcolville
Adventurer
You can easily get from 1st to 5th level in about half an hour, maybe an hour.
5th to 10th takes a little while longer. Maybe two hours.
Somewhere around 13th level, it starts to level out. I played two characters to 35th level and I was averaging about 2 hours per level at the end. With some notable exceptions. Sometimes I'd get stuck for days without levelling. Sometimes I'd be able to grind out a level in about 45 minutes.
5th to 10th takes a little while longer. Maybe two hours.
Somewhere around 13th level, it starts to level out. I played two characters to 35th level and I was averaging about 2 hours per level at the end. With some notable exceptions. Sometimes I'd get stuck for days without levelling. Sometimes I'd be able to grind out a level in about 45 minutes.
mattcolville
Adventurer
ShadowX said:
Polish.
Pielorinho
Iron Fist of Pelor
ShadowX, admittedly I haven't played any MMORPGs before, unless you count the MUSHes and MOOs of the early nineties (which I hated, by the way). However, if you're looking for revolutionary advances in Blizzard titles, you're looking in the wrong place. They don't make revolutionary advances; on the contrary, they're famous for taking a cliched concept and perfecting the snot out of it. I can't address your specific criticisms, since they're rather general, but I can say that I didn't experience any of these areas to be problematic. Course I'm a Blizzard fanboy, so that that with a grain of salt 
.
CrusaderX, the changes since the stress test include:
-A durability System. Armor and weapons now degrade, just as they did in Diablo. You have to pay money to vendors to get them repaired. Blizzard added this in as a money sink: without it, they feared that endlevel players would accumulate a ridiculous amount of cash, and would drive up the prices at the auction house so that new players couldn't possibly afford to buy anything on the open market.
-The death penalty. Capital punishment has been abolished. Ha ha, just kidding! Slaughter of one's enemies is still de rigueur, of course. No, I mean that you no longer lose experience when you resurrect via the spirit healer. Instead, you take a 25% hit to the durability of all weapons and armor you're wearing or carrying, and you suffer resurrection sickness (a 75% penalty to most stats and abilities) for a length of time dependant on level. If you run back to your corpse, there's no resurrection sickness, and you suffer only a 10% durability penalty.
-Only two tradeskills per character. In order to avoid having everyone specialize in every skill, you can only choose two skills per character to learn. You can drop a skill at any time in order to learn a different one, but if you ever decide to resume the first skill, you have to start from scratch. Certain skills--fishing, first aid, and cooking--don't apply to the two-skill limit, meaning anyone can learn them.
-Miscellaneous details. There are now voices for most NPCs, although they're very brief--just greetings and farewells. Every class has talents. Abilities have undergone some changes.
Daniel
.CrusaderX, the changes since the stress test include:
-A durability System. Armor and weapons now degrade, just as they did in Diablo. You have to pay money to vendors to get them repaired. Blizzard added this in as a money sink: without it, they feared that endlevel players would accumulate a ridiculous amount of cash, and would drive up the prices at the auction house so that new players couldn't possibly afford to buy anything on the open market.
-The death penalty. Capital punishment has been abolished. Ha ha, just kidding! Slaughter of one's enemies is still de rigueur, of course. No, I mean that you no longer lose experience when you resurrect via the spirit healer. Instead, you take a 25% hit to the durability of all weapons and armor you're wearing or carrying, and you suffer resurrection sickness (a 75% penalty to most stats and abilities) for a length of time dependant on level. If you run back to your corpse, there's no resurrection sickness, and you suffer only a 10% durability penalty.
-Only two tradeskills per character. In order to avoid having everyone specialize in every skill, you can only choose two skills per character to learn. You can drop a skill at any time in order to learn a different one, but if you ever decide to resume the first skill, you have to start from scratch. Certain skills--fishing, first aid, and cooking--don't apply to the two-skill limit, meaning anyone can learn them.
-Miscellaneous details. There are now voices for most NPCs, although they're very brief--just greetings and farewells. Every class has talents. Abilities have undergone some changes.
Daniel
Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
Yes and no.Pielorinho said:
Keep clicking on them.
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