Warhammer Preview Weekend Impressions

Warhammer Preview Weekend Write-up

Here are my thoughts and opinions on the recent Preview Weekend for Warhammer Online. I tried out a bunch of different classes on Friday and Saturday night, and on Sunday stuck with just one all day.

I will start with my class impressions:

Sorcerer: The Sorcerer (or Sorc) was the first out of the gate for me, with my fiancée playing a Witch Elf. I was pleasantly surprised by this class. I knew it could whip out some damage from playing against them earlier in the Beta, but wow I felt like a powerhouse in PvP and PvE. Their mechanic is “Dark Magic” where each spell builds up a certain amount of Dark Magic, typically 10-25 points from what I saw, up to 100 points. Then, I had one spell that did more damage the more Dark Magic I had built up. Once cast, Dark Magic returned to 0 and the process began anew.

The other part of the Sorc’s mechanic is the “backfire” (forgot actual name). This is where the Sorc takes damage himself for casting spells. Mythic made it seem like at first that they would take damage as the Dark Magic meter was close to full, but it seems this is not the case and every cast has a chance to backfire. The tooltips of some spells say “Has a chance to Backfire”. Casting normally in RvR and PvE, I didn’t notice my character taking damage much. It could have been that I was more focused on killing other people and didn’t notice the damage (since the game has this really annoying want to hide your and your groupmate’s health bars for god knows what reason, even when you don’t have full health). But, when I started spam casting their insta-cast/no cooldown PBAOE spell, I noticed that I took damage the majority of the time. It could be that this spell has more of a chance to Backfire, but the chance is not qualified in the tooltip (they all say ‘has a chance’). But at least this discourages the class from spam casting the PBAOE spell, which is a good thing in my opinion.

Overall, I had a blast on the Sorc, especially in RvR. It was really fun to play and it seems like the scenarios I played sort of favored casters.

Witch Elf: I did not play the Witch Elf myself, but I wanted to make a couple comments on the class. They have the “Frenzy” mechanic, which works similar to the Sorc, where the WE builds up Frenzy points, only up to 5 this time. They are essentially ‘combo points’, though they don’t apply specifically to just one opponent, like a WoW Rogue. I noticed that, with my Sorc casting the normal spells and the WE doing its MDPS abilities, the Sorc was doing a bit more damage. However, the WE’s 5-point combo finisher was much more devastating than the Sorc’s 100-point Dark Magic consuming spell. I suppose that this is how they are balancing/differentiating Melee and Ranged DPS. A bit more sustained DPS for Ranged, and a bit more burst on the Melee, though this was the only combination I tried out for this aspect.

Disciple: This was the class I was planning on playing at launch prior to the preview weekend. My first impression of the Disciple was that it was really boring. As a dual wielding healer, I thought the DoK (Disciple of Khaine) would be a lot of fun to play. However, the DWing animations were really boring. Also, they attack fairly slow. So, I was a bit bored at first. However, I got more into it as I gained a few more leveled and got a couple more melee skills. As far as heals, my Disciple so far got an instant heal and another one that was a quick cast (maybe it was even .5 secs) that healed for some upfront then applied a HoT. I didn’t play them at all in RvR during the preview weekend, so I’m not sure how they were in that regard. See Warrior Priest impressions below for some melee-healer RvR impressions.

Warrior Priest: I played this class a lot earlier in the Beta, so I didn’t invest much time into this character during the Preview. I can say that it was mostly the same as before, with some abilities rework. Instead of the weapon throw, they have giving the WP and DoK and 1s cast, low damage spell for pulling mobs. At first I thought it was an actual spell, which seemed weird, but then I noticed that it does negligible damage. This works fine for me, though weapon throw was basically the same, and we could use it while on the run (I actually killed someone in RvR with it trying to run them down). The weapon throw seems to be just for the tanks and melee-dpsers now. Ah well.

The WP’s (and DoK’s) mechanic is “Righteous Fury”, which is a pool of 250 points that are used as an additional cost to healing. Reminder:!!!!!! Works well, sometimes stuck in the back unable to heal when grp in tght spot, can use supplication, but wait for AP too Additionally, melee attacks are used to generate the RF points. So, Mythic is essentially forcing the melee healers to get in the middle and hit stuff in order to heal. The mechanic works basically well, however sometimes when my group was in a tight spot and I dropped back to heal, I found myself without RF points and unable to heal. I would then have to wade in the middle again to build up points for healing, while me group was dying in the meantime. They do also have a skill which converts Action Points into the RF points, which helps but there still seemed to be some moments where I was sitting there unable to heal. Of course this is a normal thing in other games when you go ‘OOM’, however running out of APs and being unable to do anything is so rare in WAR, these moments tended to stand out for me. Not a huge deal, but something to note about the mechanic.

In RvR, I really like the WP. I feel like I can get into the thick of melee combat with the big boys and compete. It takes a bit of watching your health bar, but the WP can stand toe to toe with a tank or melee-DPS, though you will most likely end up on the losing side against a MDPS, it just will take a while for them to kill you. I also feel like I can actually kill other players, which was not the case with the Rune Priest (again, keep reading for the RP impressions). They do decent damage with the 2-hander, and personally it have a blast doing some melee, and also supporting the group with heals.

Rune Priest: I was pleasantly surprised by the RP. Just reading class descriptions, I thought the RP would be the last class in WAR I wanted to play. They are deemed a more defensive healer then the others found in the game. I decided to give them a try, and I had an absolute blast playing one. Mythic has really stuck to their guns about ‘healers not just being healers’. My RP got an insta-dot (as do all casters it seems), a 2s cast DD, and an insta-DD, along with an insta-heal and insta-HoT. That’s right, no castable heals by lvl 8 or so (I know 8 is low, but all of the other healers I played up to this level has some heal with a cast time associated with it). They also got an insta-cast damage bubble that heals the target when the bubble runs out, which was a nice twist on that type of ability. So, my RP had a bunch of damage spells, and instant heals, so I was running around the thick of things like crazy throwing DDs and spots heals where I could. If this is their idea of a defensive healer, I’m sold. Also, their spell affects are AWESOME. The runes coming down in front of them for every cast and the blue circle of electricity around them for their DD spell are just really cool to watch, and they by far has the best affects of any class. While the RP doesn’t do too much damage, they were still viable out in the thick of things for RvR. I could kill some people who didn’t have decent gear, but others I really needed help on. I faced a shammy 1-on-1, and neither of us were able to kill the other. With how AP works, I don’t think the showdown would have ever ended without outside interference. It was a good 2-3 minute battle of us just standing in front of one another casting and healing. It was fun, but showed how the AP mechanic can be a little flawed for healers. We’ll see in big boy RvR.

White Lion: I hated the WL. Not only was WAR’s pet AI completely broken for the preview, the class overall just doesn’t seem fun. Their abilities just seem boring, and I don’t think they are adding much to the experience of WAR. We’ll see once they can actually use their pets…. Oh, and clicking the teeny-tiny icons to change your pet’s state (Passive, Aggressive, etc) are horrendously hard to click on even when not in combat. This needs to be addressed.

Black Orc: The BO was the class I played all day Sunday, and I had a lot of fun with the big oaf. This is the most enjoyable time I’ve had with a tank in any MMO. Their ability affects are cool, and I really like the ability to taunt in RvR. They can also take a pounding out in RvR. These guys (or any tank) with a healer out there will be quite hard to kill without a lot of effort. That being said, I probably will not play one at release. Tanks in general don’t fit my play style, and although I was having fun with it, I found myself getting kind of bored in PvE. I know WAR isn’t about PvE but I’ll be looking at another archetype at launch.

Their mechanic mirrors the Swordmaster’s, which uses a 3-combo system. An opening attack (No Plan!) brings you to the second levels of attacks (Da Gud Plan!), use one of the level two attacks and you get to level 3 (Da Best Plan!), where you unleash your most powerful attacks, and then are reset back to the opening attack. It is a pretty fun system, especially when you get a range of attacks at each level. Some attacks have dots, snares, or even buffs for your defensive target, so you can mix up your combos to your liking or as the need arises. It worked pretty well, and it definitely spices up a tank’s life of “Taunt, Taunt, Taunt, repeat” seen in most games.

All in all, I will most likely still be playing a Disciple at launch. My play style has always revolved around a healer who can still hit stuff too, and playing Destruction, this is my one option. If given the choice I would take the Warrior Priest over the Disciple, just for my preference of using a 2-hander over Dual Wielding. Anyway, they are basically the same class, and my one consolation is that I get to ride a Cold One as my mount…..

RvR: RvR is a blast in this game. I had a lot of fun in the scenarios, which was most of the experience I had in RvR over the Preview. The Scenarios are much more exciting and fast-paced than anything seen in WoW. To start, the time limit is 15 minutes for all 3 of the scenarios I played. This is very refreshing, especially coming form a game where a single battleground could last 2 hours. The points accumulate fast and there’s never really a point where I was just sitting around waiting to win or lose, I always thought I could squeeze or a few more RPs or XPs, or try to take another node to turn the tide of the battle. That being said, however, it seems pretty hard for a a team who falls behind early to turn the corner. That could also be attributed to the lack of organization and guilds in the single Preview. I am sure that once guilds get in these Scenarios and get organized, things will be much less “zergy”.
The fighting itself, though, is a bit slower than we have seen before. Mythic has made quite an effort to prevent “one-shotting” and people getting killed before they can take any action. They want to give people a chance to defend themselves, regardless of the difference of gear or level difference (within a Scenario anyway, which are level capped). I think this works well, and fosters an environment where you can’t just spam one ability or style to win. You need to utilize a much broader range of abilities and skills in order to win in the prolonged fights, which is a big plus of the game. Even when outmatched, hopefully people can spend more time fighting and less time respawning.

I explored a bit of world RvR, which was much less populated than the Scenarios during the weekend. I wandered into a world PvP area (which is clearly marked on the map) that Destruction controlled (I was playing Destruction at the time). There was no Destruction to be found, the only thing I found was 4 or 5 higher level Order players that promptly killed me. I then respawned at a camp in the last zone I was in, and didn’t really want to run all the way back down to the other zone in order to be overrun again. I did get a chance to play open world RvR in the Beta however, and it seemed like it could be a lot of fun, with the same kind of back and forth RvR as seen in DAoC. There are objectives to capture, along with keeps and towers. However, the open world PvP areas in the lower levels are much smaller than anything seen in endgame RvR in DAoC. These are not the Frontiers; they are small concentrated areas of fighting. Which is definitely good so you aren’t wandering around looking for a fight all the time, but I think it may cut down on the immersion factor a little bit, as it lacks of the feeling of ‘I’m out roaming this vast area to purge the mother land of invading scum’. This may change in the later tiers, but I didn’t have a chance to check these out.

PvE and Public Quests: First of all, the single player PvE, which mostly consists of doing quests ala WoW, is very boring and unimaginative. It is essentially a system ripped right from others games, mainly WoW, meant to assuage the PvE crowd. In the Preview, once you were out of the initial starting towns, in which the quests were usually clear and easy to find, it seemed the quests lose a bit of focus and polish, and it is much easier to be wandering around aimlessly looking for a quest mob/item, even considering the general area of the objective is marked on your map. The system really isn’t fresh or engaging at all, and I probably would give up on leveling if this was the only way to level.

Not only do you get a bunch of XP from RvRing, especially in Scenarios, but you also get good XP for the Public Quests. I won’t go into super detail on the whole system, but I’ll just offer some impressions for now. Anyone and everyone from your realm can join in on a Public Quest. The group must meet certain objectives along the way to finally spawning a boss to kill. Once the boss is killed, people get ranked for their participation, and then the game randomly rolls for each person. A final place is given to the top participants at the finish, and this determines if you receive loot or not. Usually the top 3 to 6 (that I saw) got a loot bag, with higher finishers getting a better bag. The loot bag contains loot specifically tailored to your character, including gear for your class, recipes/supplies for your trade skills, or even gold. You can then choose one item from the bag and the bag disappears. I have mixed feeling about this system. The good is that it prevents ninja looting, and ensures that if you get a bag, you can use what is in there (unless you have already gotten the same bag before…. The loot doesn’t change for the same PQ). The bad is the random rolling. You can finish 1^st in participation and then be randomly ranked 18^th place at the end and not get anything. You can also rank 18^th in participation and turn around a place 2^nd at the end (I personally saw both during the weekend). Certainly, this is keeping with the spirit of random loot rolls, but it is a bit disheartening to bust your butt getting high participation, and then not be rewarded at the end.

A small consolation is the Influence system (think Reputation in WoW). By doing PQ, you gain Influence with the town the PQ is related to. Once you reach certain levels of Influence, you can choose rewards, which are again tailored to your character. The first level is usually a choice of potions, the second is usually some small gear (usually things like boots or a belt), and the third and final level are the biggest rewards, typically weapons or chest pieces. I saw myself reaching the highest level of Influence at a couple different towns by doing the full Public Quests about twice. This seems reasonable to me, especially since once you finish up one area, when you hit the next town you have another PQ and another set of Influence rewards that will replace your old ones. You don’t want to have to put in too much time for the rewards since they are usually replaced quickly.

Conclusion: Overall, I am really looking forward to the launch of WAR. During the Beta, I got a little unexcited about the game due to the delays and the instability of the game. I am extremely happy with the progress it has made, and this past weekend has left me itching for more. I, once again, can’t wait for its release.

Note: It really looks like Destruction will be the overpopulated realm in this game. I know usually you see a lot of people roll the “good” side in a game, for typical looking humans and Elves, but Order has consistently been the underdog throughout Beta and the Preview weekend. Throughout the weekend I have noticed a significantly shorter queue time for Order than Destruction. I know it is only a short time away, but I think it could be something to consider if you all care that much.