WAR Closed Beta has started!

[Kirun]

Even though having tons of classes rarely ends well, for some reason I prefer it. While my class may suck in the grand scheme of things and may not conform to the min/max requirements of most raiders/raid guilds, I enjoy the option to play classes that while maybe "underpowered," are fun as hell to play. MMOs are all about choices for me. The more there are, the better. It's why I enjoyed the hell out of the class system in DAoC and EQ2. Unfortunately, other issues kept me from sticking with those games.

[Cadrid]

Well, Beta is back in session, as you've undoubtedly heard from the podcasts, and I'm glad to be back in the thick of things.

I really, really, really want to talk about the nitty-gritty, specific things that have changed since the break. I want to just go "Public Quests are so [redacted]! When you fight in them you [redacted] and then the looting system is setup such that [redacted]. I JUST [redacted] PQs!"

But I'm afraid of the men in black suits with tazers.

[Pellwell]

Originally Posted by Grumpy Old Fart

DAoC is and always was a complete disaster of class balance, however, so this is probably the worst possible example you could give.

Not only were they unbalanced from the start - and mostly never fixed - whenever they released an expansion, those sleazy fuckheads at Mythic would *ALWAYS* include massively over-powered classes just to rake in the box sales (anybody ever hear of Animists? Bonedancers? Vampiirs?). Of course people playing a PvP game are going to want the "most powerful" class, and with DAoC that was almost always the one(s) from the latest expansion.

I have a lot of that good old MMORPG gamer emotional capital invested in WAR's success, but Mythic's past bullshit sure has these MMORPG'er bones a bit nervous.

I'm inclined to agree. Class balance in DAoC at release was an abomination. Nothing has made me quit a game faster.

[Faelor]

Originally Posted by Grumpy Old Fart

DAoC is and always was a complete disaster of class balance, however, so this is probably the worst possible example you could give.

Not only were they unbalanced from the start - and mostly never fixed - whenever they released an expansion, those sleazy fuckheads at Mythic would *ALWAYS* include massively over-powered classes just to rake in the box sales (anybody ever hear of Animists? Bonedancers? Vampiirs?). Of course people playing a PvP game are going to want the "most powerful" class, and with DAoC that was almost always the one(s) from the latest expansion.

I have a lot of that good old MMORPG gamer emotional capital invested in WAR's success, but Mythic's past bullshit sure has these MMORPG'er bones a bit nervous.

Yep yep. I really hope (and think, at least at the moment) they have learned their lesson. While WAR has a handful of classes, it does have less than DAoC which should help to some degree. I don't care if a game has a thousand classes and the top-rated development team ever, it's just too much to handle.

As a Warhammer fan, I have extremely high hopes for this game. Mythic in my opinion has done a Grade A job promoting and hyping the game up through their online media. If they can deliver the same stellar performance in their game at release, I think they're going to have a great hit on their hands.



... Of course the game can always fail, making a metric ass-a-ton of Warhammer fanatics go in to a blood raging state and attacking Mythic EA... You never know

Oh, and I'm glad Elrar is doing community work at Mythic. Woo-hoo, go Elrar!

[Sythrak]

Keep in mind this game has only had two(?) years of development, and is made by Mythic with EA's backing. I wouldn't expect some stellar game coming from that kind of background and development time.

I think it'll be a great two month break type of game with how dry new MMO's titles have been, but I'm not expecting much beyond that. Of course I could just be ye olde disgruntled MMO player.

[Draegan]

WAR has been in development a lot longer than it's been under EA I believe.

[Mist]

Not much longer. Before WAR, Mythic was working on a game called Imperator, which was so bad that they cancelled it immediately upon somehow acquiring the Warhammer license. And Imperator was still in development not that long ago, like 2-3 E3s back.

[Dashal]

I think by release it's going to be over 3 years in development. Assuming it's coming out June 08.

[Glaive]

I had a dream last night that I got into beta. When I woke up I was a sad panda.

[Glaive]

Originally Posted by Menion

Anyone else leery about their having 24 classes right off the bat? That is a lot of classes to try to balance especially for a PVP game. EQ2 still has classes that are shit 3 years after launch. How do you expand your game? If you decide to add more classes later you would have to add 6 classes 1 for each faction.

It depends on how severe their "Career Mastery" system is. Talents in WoW make a pretty big difference in how a particular class is played, so that in many ways there are 27 classes in WoW. Being that EQ2's classes were originally part of a branching class system, there's a ton of overlap in terms of abilities so that I never really felt like it had 24 distinct classes. It was a lot more like being stuck with a particular spec in WoW.

So I'm hoping that they recognize that class balance is essentially an unattainable goal, and that they focus instead on just making each class (and spec, I guess, with their new system) viable in their respective roles and, most importantly, FUN TO PLAY. I may be alone, but I don't care if my tanking character is the best tank in every situation as long as he's freakin' fun. In fact, I'll play a tank/DPS/healer/whatever that's generally acknowledged as "OK but not nearly as good as Class X" if it's more fun than the min/max FotM.

Also, am I correct in thinking that all the careers are currently revealed except for one High Elf one? Since the Shadow Warrior is mainly an archery class, I presume it counts as Ranged DPS so we're waiting on the Melee DPS class, right?

[Azrayne]

Correct.

[Flaric]

I think most people believe/guess the melee dps class for the High Elves is going to be the White Lion.

[Havelock]

Originally Posted by Faelor

Oh, and I'm glad Elrar is doing community work at Mythic. Woo-hoo, go Elrar!

That is sweet news. Good call, Mythic.

[Dashal]

Too many classes is a headache, but I prefer that to too few. What sucks is even with all the class choices, I had wanted to play a Melee DPS on Destruction side and I dont like any of them :/

I'll either have to go with a Tank, which looks like nice choices on Destruction... or give the Mythic Disciple a chance and see if it's better than the Vanguard Disciple.

[Lonin]

Originally Posted by Dashal

Too many classes is a headache, but I prefer that to too few. What sucks is even with all the class choices, I had wanted to play a Melee DPS on Destruction side and I dont like any of them :/

I'll either have to go with a Tank, which looks like nice choices on Destruction... or give the Mythic Disciple a chance and see if it's better than the Vanguard Disciple.

Man, I love the description of the Marauder, I find the Order side's melee DPS classes to be lacking personally.