[VG] The Current State of Vanguard

[Agraza]

Originally Posted by Genjiro

They should have promoted Jerrith.

He sent me a PM once so he must be awesome. I have to agree with this.

[Arrr]

Originally Posted by Malakie Torsade

Rolled a Goblin Rogue on Seradon. Only level 7 but enjoying myself so far. Runs very well; have pretty much everything maxed at 1900x1200 and getting 40-55 FPS. So far everyone in OOC has been very polite and helpful.

Few questions/requests :

Can someone do a brief summary of the classes? Something like this :
Class - Short description (offensive healer, positional DPS, etc.) - Solo Strength - Group Desirability

Short breakdown of tradeskills and crafted item desirability would be nice too.

What items should I keep/sell? Is there a particular color of item to look for, or is pretty much all the white "Eyeball" or "Tuft of Fur" type loot vendor bait? Are the green/blue items I get on occasion worth putting on the Auction House (IS there an auction house?)

List of dungeons/level ranges/areas?

For the classes:

Tanks- DK (unholy tank), warrior (physical dps tank), paladin (holy tank)

for practical application, any of the three are good. My guild uses all 3 regularly, and I've never thought any were gimp. Paladins are a bit better for a little bit, but they fixed that, I believe.

Light Fighter-

Ranger (nature-oriented fighter)- more of a melee class in VG than a ranged one. needs some help atm, as they have aggro issues.
Rogue (sneaky dps)- currently the dominant DPS class by a long shot, but won't be so dominant in the future. probably the worst soloer in the game.
Monk (martial arts FD dps)- #2 in DPS right now generally. Very strong class. Good soloers, I believe.
Bard (eq1-style support class)- Very strong utility, and really makes a group go. mediocre personal dps.

Healers-

Cleric (armored holy healer)- very much a tougher healer. They have some itemization woes right now, but my guild uses them to a large extent and we're pretty damn successful.
Shaman (healer/buffer with 3 distinct flavors)- versatile healer with 3 different specs and excellent buffs. is getting overhauled pretty soon also to be a better healer and to have more of a wow-esque druid feel.
Disciple (melee-oriented healer)- can do some decent DPS. ridiculous longevity due to having a second mana pool called jin. supposedly getting some dev attention as well.
blood mage (caster healer)- has some good buffs, and has blood pact, which is incredibly useful (shares HP across the group, and is basically necessary for raiding)

casters-

necro (necromancer as seen in other games)- not incredibly strong right now. have very nice clicky buffs in meat and orb. could be better, imo.
psionicist (eq1-style enchanter with more of a dps emphasis)- very versatile. I thought they were underpowered for a long time, but lately our main psi can't stop pulling aggro. apparently they're doing much more dps than before.
sorcerer (eq1 wizard)- supposed to be the eq1 wizard-style top caster dps class, but generally does not come close to that due to aggro issues
druid (like eq1 druid with more dps, much less healing ability)- like sorcerer with slightly more utility. needs help also.

[Jaded]

Just tried to log on and got "You do not have a Vanguard subscription. Please register for Vanguard."

I thought this was supposed to be going on until July 31st?

Edit: My account shows Closed on Station. Way to go, Sony.

[tad10]

Originally Posted by Jaded

Just tried to log on and got "You do not have a Vanguard subscription. Please register for Vanguard."

I thought this was supposed to be going on until July 31st?

It was/is call SOE customer support (if they're open on the 4th of course). That's fricking annoying

[Mad Jacq]

I quit a month or two after release and hadn't been back. Received the recent free month re-invite and had no trouble downloading the game. It's 18.7 GB.

The changes are noticeable, but not dramatic.

One thing I have to admit to some disappointment in is performance. I am sure that those who have gotten new systems in the last year probably are seeing great things (I hear a lot of folks in game talking about how good it looks). I didn't, however. What I did do, though, was move from a 6800 GT GeForce to a 7950 GTX. So I was expecting some improvement. I got only a little improvement.*

*So... Over a year of them optimizing the game + me making a significant move to a top of the line DX 9 video card = a little improvement in performance (i.e. I can play on medium settings with periodic hitching).

I am now playing on a recommended spec machine, so had hoped it would look better. I have a P IV 3.6 single core, 2 GB of RAM and the aforementioned upgraded Vid Board.
_________________________________

The flying mounts are very cool (only tried the rented Wyvern so far).

The game is as deep as ever. I had forgotten most of the stuff so felt a little overwhelmed at all the abilities and skills and items and various spheres--so much so that I rerolled a new necromancer just to relearn how to play my 26th level old one.

They give you subscriber bonuses for the whole time since you played too (titles, pets, furniture, items...), even if you didn't have an active account.

I am seeing a lot of folks in-game now as well (much more than I saw when I left).
__________________________________

Where do I stand on re-subbing? I dunno right now. I might need all of the rest of this free trial just to decide. I haven't been playing that much and in short spurts. It could be that I am just too old for MMOs anymore.

Anyway, that's my current thoughts on the game.

[tad10]

For performance I still find that defragging your hard drive and setting up a static 2GB of so pagefile helps a lot (with most games, not just VG).

I'm not sure what the solution to the pop problem is -- Seradon is doing great but something needs to be done about the other servers. Network effect for the lose here -- Seradon is the most populated so it attracts the most new players. There's something to be said for merging Xeth and Halgar.

Got me what to do about Sartok (PvP server). It's dead. One suggestion would be to create some PvP areas on the existing PvE servers and close down Sartok. Maybe one PvP housing area, one pure PvP zone (the large island south of New Targ would be good since nothing is really there), and maybe a couple of PvP dungeons at various levels that aren't on the mainline re-itemized with some PvP appropriate gear. Not a great suggestion I know -- but not sure what else can be done. If someone has a better solution send it to SOE.

[Pyros]

They could just close down the pvp server, since they're not doing anything to support PvP anyway. I bet you you wouldn't hear even that many people cry about it ^^.

I'm still hesitating with reactivating my account and trying to get my char moved to Seradon, but it'd suck if I paid the sub then figured I had to restart from 0. Well not totally 0, since I do have a few chars on Xeth, but I don't really want to do hunter's league and cis AGAIN.

[Etwynn]

Originally Posted by Pyros

They could just close down the pvp server, since they're not doing anything to support PvP anyway. I bet you you wouldn't hear even that many people cry about it ^^.

I'm still hesitating with reactivating my account and trying to get my char moved to Seradon, but it'd suck if I paid the sub then figured I had to restart from 0. Well not totally 0, since I do have a few chars on Xeth, but I don't really want to do hunter's league and cis AGAIN.

Closing down Sartok: Terrible idea. PvP on PvE servers: good idea. Sartok players want to be able to kill people while doing PvE content, that's kind of it's appeal. WoW /pvp tag systems just don't allow that. If you shut down the Sartok server Vanguard would get a lot of forumhate. With that said, some sort of PvP on PvE servers would be nice for existing and new PvE server players. One of the biggest drawbacks to Vanguard for WoW players is that the only option for PvP is playing on a server which caps at like 150 players during primetime.

[TwiNCannoN]

I don't know how I played games with friends trying to keep around the same level without the brotherhood system in the past. What an awesome mechanic.

[Pyros]

Originally Posted by Etwynn

Closing down Sartok: Terrible idea. PvP on PvE servers: good idea. Sartok players want to be able to kill people while doing PvE content, that's kind of it's appeal. WoW /pvp tag systems just don't allow that. If you shut down the Sartok server Vanguard would get a lot of forumhate. With that said, some sort of PvP on PvE servers would be nice for existing and new PvE server players. One of the biggest drawbacks to Vanguard for WoW players is that the only option for PvP is playing on a server which caps at like 150 players during primetime.

That's actually what I meant, if you closed Sartok, you'd have some people unhappy, but definitely not a whole lot since there's so few people still playing VG on PvP servers. Most of what was left probably went to AoC. Don't really care, but it's stupid to maintain a server that's pretty much a giant ghost town when you're not supporting the gamestyle at all. They said they'll look into pvp changes after they're done with most of the other stuff, and considering they're taking their sweet time with updates, that's probably not even before warhammer is released. With AoC maybe in a better shape(it's pretty crappy atm but for the FFA aspect) and WAR, I doubt Sartok would retain enough people to warrant a whole server.

[Jerrith]

Originally Posted by Agraza

He sent me a PM once so he must be awesome. I have to agree with this.

Thanks. *grins*

These changes don't sound all that bad to me, honestly. Having the shaman be able to perform as a weak member of one of the other archetypes (tank, melee, caster) based on his selected path was part of the plan for as long as I can remember.

It sounds like this update first fixes a ton of issues, adds some bonuses (pet at the same time as form bonus) and then attempts to make the "act as other archetype" feature better, by bringing it up to just under what the actual archetypes can do, but imposing significant drawbacks. I think the balancing is going to be very difficult, but I don't think Talisker would be attempting it if he didn't think he could do it.

The Inquisitor was an interesting idea, but didn't really excite me all that much. The Berserker on the other hand... That's the class that I really wish made it. Keeping your health low for max DPS and changing incoming heals into reactions that you could activate when you wanted was really a neat concept.

[Etwynn]

Originally Posted by Jerrith

The Berserker on the other hand... That's the class that I really wish made it. Keeping your health low for max DPS and changing incoming heals into reactions that you could activate when you wanted was really a neat concept.

Yeah it was a cool idea. I think you guys said it was going to be a dps class, not a tank which makes sense:
As a tank tank: It would be a a tank that would HAVE to stay at lower health in order to do max dps (and presumably to hold aggro). Any tank that isn't kept at full hp will be 1-shotted frequently enough to make the class ridiculously frustrating to play. Unless of course you just gave it extra hp, in which case it would be ridiculously overpowered because you could just say "screw the extra damage gained by keeping my hp low," get hate dumps, and force your groups to give twenty seconds to grab aggro at the beginning of each fight and have basically have an awesome tank for mobs that hit hard, thus completely ignoring the "gear check" in the raid context. The only way adding hp would work is if the tank did so little damage at full hp that it couldn't possibly hold aggro against anything at 50-100% hp. And in that case you'd have a class completely useless outside of the role of tanking.

I think it would have worked as a DPS class. Keeping your hp around 25-50% would be attained not through getting attacked but through through masochistic self-damage abilites (presumably ones that increase in self damage as you get closer to 0%--to make things interesting). It would be cool if the self-damage abilities also functioned as deaggros. And sans some sort of lifetap, the class would basically be unable to solo. I think the funnest part of playing this class would be yelling at PuG healers to
To [Group] STOP FUCKING HEALING ME
[Group][Lulhealz] Large Heal incoming on Berzerker
Berzerker has left the group.

[TwiNCannoN]

I'm really enjoying this game now. I have no idea about the endgame but honestly they should fix up some of the shittier starting areas, make sure any beginning quests are fixed (I've run into a couple broken ones) and try to remarket the game, it's just so much better now. There's a ton of new people in /ooc it seems (myself included) and most people seem to feel the same way and a lot of them are talking about subbing, the community is great as well and really helpful. At this point I'll certainly subscribe, I love exploring the world and doing diplomacy and generally figuring out how deep all of the systems go.

Also anyone know why my harvesting skills have suddenly gotten stuck? edit: nm it fixed itself, not sure what went on there.

[Kreugen]

Sad part about Vanguard is seeing all these big keeps and dungeons and knowing that there is near zero chance of ever putting a group together to do them in any sane period of time. Unless they add mentoring to the game they only way a massive chunk of content will ever be used is if they reduced it all to solo strength.

[Bocephus]

Originally Posted by Jerrith

The Berserker on the other hand... That's the class that I really wish made it. Keeping your health low for max DPS and changing incoming heals into reactions that you could activate when you wanted was really a neat concept.

Id be so happy if they put Zerkers in. That is the one class I really fell in love with back in EQ and no MMO has done the role justice. EQ2 made them tanks(SHITTY!) and in WOW you had to role a warrior to come close. I want a giant chain wearing Zerk wielding a 2h damn it.