WAR Closed Beta has started!

[Daezuel]

Originally Posted by JerleMinara

Pass.
Completely uninspired gameplay, generic classes, few abilities, and a terrible UI. It does very little for me.

I went in wanting to like it, but I couldn't. The UI is completely horrid both in behaviour and appearance. The gameplay feels shallow and empty, and endgame is terrible unless you're in a organised guild.

I'll be honest though, I thik a lot of my problems with the game stem from the UI. It's a huge disincentive to log in, I don't even want to play knowing I'll have to battle with shit and it just doesn't feel/play right. But that aside, the game mechanics are lackluster.

Pros:
PQs are neat(though it's fucking ridiculous that you can be 1st like 5 times in a row and still get no loot due to shitty RNG).
It's pretty.

Cons:
Everything else.

Few abilties? You mean like every class gets around 40? Only play a lvl 1 char? What is terrible about the UI? Seems pretty functional to me, you can resize it, move all the elements around to wherever you like them.

As far as being in an organized guild, I've only been running around with 2 friends, end up at the top of every scenario we're in (never lost one), and generally own faces in rvr.

So if by organized guild you mean a couple of friends you're right.

There are plenty of things to do in this game, many different ways of participating in both pve and pvp but it sounds like you logged in, got to level 5 and decided you disliked the UI, put no effort into rearranging it to your tastes, and decided you hate it.

[JerleMinara]

Originally Posted by Draegan

Whats wrong with the UI? It seems the same as WOW or any other MMO. Also I believe they will have mods for this game so you can change it to whatever you want.

It just has a terrible look and feel. I'm very much into the whole UI experience and the Warhammer UI really falls short and doesn't lift my skirt in the least.

It doesn't behave like it should.. Small little quirks.. I've got a list of them lying around here somewhere, but honestly I'd rather not get too much into my complaints with the UI because I'm not sure what I can/can't say due to another Warhammer-related NDA I'm bound by.

[Itzena]

Originally Posted by sticktastic

/stick and /face was the most noob idea ever put in a mmo, if it woulda been left working on just mobs, then it might have been ok, but seriously having in work in pvp was lame. Shooting someone with a bow, and having them auto /face was just god awful stupid.

That was going to be my point.

[Moskank]

The game needs polish (no where near that POS AoC) but it is still fun when the shit hits the fan and worth the $ to me. The UI has about as many options as other games during release- hopefully the modders can provide what's missing.

I have a couple SS's, but can't beat that 1mb limit; searching for the answer now.

[JerleMinara]

Originally Posted by Daezuel

Few abilties? You mean like every class gets around 40? Only play a lvl 1 char? What is terrible about the UI? Seems pretty functional to me, you can resize it, move all the elements around to wherever you like them.

As far as being in an organized guild, I've only been running around with 2 friends, end up at the top of every scenario we're in (never lost one), and generally own faces in rvr.

So if by organized guild you mean a couple of friends you're right.

There are plenty of things to do in this game, many different ways of participating in both pve and pvp but it sounds like you logged in, got to level 5 and decided you disliked the UI, put no effort into rearranging it to your tastes, and decided you hate it.

I've played multiple characters into the 20s(Marauder, Witch Hunter, and a War Lion). I've also participated in the tier 4 stuff.

To correct my "few abilities" comment.. There's very little utility, almost no buffs, and stuff breaks down into some very basic categories. You've got the same 6-buttons you're going to hit from 1-40, gaining a bit of relative utility at certain intervals(usually when you move from tier to tier), but for the most part it's just direct damage, dots, etc.

Scenarios are an exception, and my "organised guild" comment was relative to RvR and keep sieges. Scenarios are great if you have a couple of competent friends and I made a few buddies that I rolled pretty hard with. It was enjoyable, but that doesn't last into the higher scenarios when you start adding in more people and keep sieges are a whole separate beast.

It's a good game, I'm sure it will appeal to many people, and I hope it succeeds commercially. It fulfills that RVR niche. But it feels completely dull to me, and I lost interest in logging in.

[Draegan]

I think with higher populations open groups will provide the grouping needed for sieges. The game is night and day different between low pop and high pop.

[Daezuel]

Originally Posted by JerleMinara

I've played multiple characters into the 20s(Marauder, Witch Hunter, and a War Lion). I've also participated in the tier 4 stuff.

To correct my "few abilities" comment.. There's very little utility, almost no buffs, and stuff breaks down into some very basic categories. You've got the same 6-buttons you're going to hit from 1-40, gaining a bit of relative utility at certain intervals(usually when you move from tier to tier), but for the most part it's just direct damage, dots, etc.

Scenarios are an exception, and my "organised guild" comment was relative to RvR and keep sieges. Scenarios are great if you have a couple of competent friends and I made a few buddies that I rolled pretty hard with. It was enjoyable, but that doesn't last into the higher scenarios when you start adding in more people and keep sieges are a whole separate beast.

It's a good game, I'm sure it will appeal to many people, and I hope it succeeds commercially. It fulfills that RVR niche. But it feels completely dull to me, and I lost interest in logging in.

Just no...you do not just hit the same 6 buttons from 1-40. You have runes, you have morale abilities, you have tactics which you will want to change for different needs. There are defensive target buffs/healing, debuffs to place on other characters, snares/roots/knockdowns. Tanks can buff your entire party to take FAR less dmg and so on and so forth.

This is outside just what you'd use just to attack but I'll just use my BW as an example. First off I have 2 buffs (hour each) I have several passive tactics to choose from, different morale abilities for each stage to decide upon. I can attack a person or group using a hex (mostly dots) which then allow me to use abilities that have secondary effects if the target is under the effect of a hex, one of which explodes around the target doing a large amount of aoe dmg. Then I have a couple different direct aoe dmg spells I can shoot off, or I could decide to single target someone down, or I could decide to root a group and back off...all the while I need to pay attention to my combustion meter and blow it off if I don't want to risk damaging myself. I have like 5-6 instant abilities FFS.

At this point I've built up enough morale to use one of those abilities and that adds into my attack.

I have at least 15 keys hot keyed and use most of them every time I fight.

[JerleMinara]

Originally Posted by Daezuel

Just no...you do not just hit the same 6 buttons from 1-40. You have runes, you have morale abilities, you have tactics which you will want to change for different needs. There are defensive target buffs/healing, debuffs to place on other characters, snares/roots/knockdowns. Tanks can buff your entire party to take FAR less dmg and so on and so forth.

This is outside just what you'd use just to attack but I'll just use my BW as an example. First off I have 2 buffs (hour each) I have several passive tactics to choose from, different morale abilities for each stage to decide upon. I can attack a person or group using a hex (mostly dots) which then allow me to use abilities that have secondary effects if the target is under the effect of a hex, one of which explodes around the target doing a large amount of aoe dmg. Then I have a couple different direct aoe dmg spells I can shoot off, or I could decide to single target someone down, or I could decide to root a group and back off...all the while I need to pay attention to my combustion meter and blow it off if I don't want to risk damaging myself.

At this point I've built up enough morale to use one of those abilities and that adds into my attack.

I have at least 15 keys hot keyed and use most of them every time I fight.

I guess it depends, what're we talking about when we say "fight". When I say fight I'm talking about the PVE experience. Maybe it's drastically different for a BW levelling(which I confess I did not do, I only played a BW in T4), but as a Marauder it breaks down to spamming flail and keeping corruption up over the course of the first 20 levels.

Now if we're talking PVP, sure.. For a BW you've got a whole box of tricks, a couple of dots and some neat hexes. For a marauder you're basically positioning, tossing on snare and corruption and again knocking in that sweet sweet flail(or impale if you took savagery i think it is). Witch Hunter played similarly.

Perhaps the game's better for casting classes, I didn't fiddle with them too much beyond a couple hours in tier4 apiece. PVP has a number of options with regards to stun/knockdown/hexes/etc on BW/Sorc/Magus, but the PVE and melee experience is completely lackluster and boils down to a 6 button twist.

Edit: Also, you're including tactics which don't count. They're completely passive. And morale abilities are on a 60 second cooldown.

[Daezuel]

Pretty much every melee class has 3 "stances" no? Abilities will only work in a certain stance sort of like a WoW Warrior. So then you have basically 3 different bars with which you'll have several abilities hotkeyed to. Melee classes also build some type of energy like a rogue which can be used for abilities that require this build up.

So with melee classes you're juggling stances, main abilities, morale abilities. What more do you want?

[spronk]

botting will be a huge problem in this game, i hacked a quick autoIT script that let me stay afk in a PQ and it would just attack the spot where bosses spawn, i never died in 4 hours and gained a level. A quick peek at the internal structures makes it pretty easy to read useful data like self hp/ap/etc and mob info, so i'm sure in a few weeks we'll see complex bots that can farm.

They did group up with the guys who do the anti cheat stuff, Punkbuster, so if you are caught the penalties will be severe I imagine (machine ban etc).

There is a huge incentive to bot as well, since endgame is all about renown and the easiest way is to bot in scenarios, and it will be trivial to write bots for that. Also people who mostly RvR/PVP will be pretty poor money wise, so there is a big incentive to sell gold.

[Daezuel]

Wait, what class can beat hero type mobs in the last stages of PQs solo?

[darkblue]

Now that the NDA has been lifted, if anyone wants screenshots or a video of certain parts of the game, UI, Character Creation etc. Let me know and I will make a quick video and upload it.

[spronk]

Originally Posted by Daezuel

Wait, what class can beat hero type mobs in the last stages of PQs solo?

none, i ran it when other people were always around just as a test (the first few days when they opened up warpstone had 2k+ pops always)

[JerleMinara]

Originally Posted by Daezuel

Pretty much every melee class has 3 "stances" no? Abilities will only work in a certain stance sort of like a WoW Warrior. So then you have basically 3 different bars with which you'll have several abilities hotkeyed to. Melee classes also build some type of energy like a rogue which can be used for abilities that require this build up.

So with melee classes you're juggling stances, main abilities, morale abilities. What more do you want?

No. Only one of the melee dps classes has "stances", and that's Marauder with Brutality/Savagery/Monstrosity.. One of them is AE, one of them is "dots", and one of them is direct damage. The dots and AE were completely pitiful, leaving you with only the DD one. Furthermore, there's no "juggling stances". You're not switching between them regularly because there's a 10 second cooldown on change, and they're completely separate talent branches.

Witch Hunters/Witch Elves have combo points, but they have very few finishing moves. as of level 40 I believe you get a total of 3 finishing moves. One's big damage, one's damage over time, and one's a snare/damage. Working from memory here so may not be completely accurate.

War Lions have no stances, no buildup, and a pet that fires off random abilities and can't be timed for shit. They do have a bit more versatility in abilities(some situational stuff that dovetails nicely into other moves) but they don't even have the pseudo-variability of stances/combo points.

Morale abilities don't factor into this because they're a "pop once every 60 seconds" type deal, and as an MDPS you're rarely going to last long enough to put up more than one.

What more do I want? I'd settle for more utility that synergises like BW stuff.

[Dashivax]

Originally Posted by Daezuel

Pretty much every melee class has 3 "stances" no? Abilities will only work in a certain stance sort of like a WoW Warrior. So then you have basically 3 different bars with which you'll have several abilities hotkeyed to. Melee classes also build some type of energy like a rogue which can be used for abilities that require this build up.

The only melee class that comes even close to working that way is the Marauder, they have specific abilities that can only be used with specific mutations. The rest of their abilities work the same as every other class in the game.

The spec you choose does not lock you into only using certain abilities, it simply increases the effectiveness of certain abilities.