Auenwing posted:

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Well, I confess. I said I wouldn't jump into beta and that it would be months out before I could really play. The second part still holds true, but I went ahead and pre-ordered after spending a huge part of the weekend doing research, reading through forums and reports and all the posts here. The itch to help test was that strong. Trying to figure out how I can squeeze it in.... I may have to fire up the coffeemaker...

So I may or may not see some of you guys in beta!

/crazy old lady with fingers crossed

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Eternal_Midnight posted:

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I only got 2 toons up to level 11 in the last beta event, so take it all with a large grain of salt... Indeed, the highest level anyone has gotten is 27 (out of 50) so we haven't even seen half the content yet.

With that said... the game is pretty clean and bug free, and they are executing their beta test well. The graphics are great, but remember that this doesn't make a game, particularly not an MMO. You'd need a very up to date computer to get top of the line graphical preformance.

The talent system (I mean soul system) is good, and varied, and should provide for wide variety in characters. However, with that said, each talent tree (I mean soul tree) looks very similar to WoW pre 4.0. Spend points, get 3% more damage or add 2% to damage reduction. Some talents could have been quite literally lifted from WoW.

I also believe, based only on speculation, that they will be facing serious balance issues at higher levels. My level 11 Mage had no less than FOUR different instant cast spells. 2 had no cooldowns other than the global. One had an addition pushback effect. One had an additional DoT effect. This is in addition to 2 regularly cast spells with larger damage. I didn't even get the main focus of my chosen talents (I mean souls) which was going to be AE CC spells. Oh yeah, and I also had a pet. Based on this, I forsee serious, serious balance problems.

The much ballyhoo-ed Rifts are actually identical to Public Quests in Warhammer. Stages, kill smaller mobs in early stages, working towards a boss to close the rift. It's a better execution of this mechanic than WAR, but just wanted to be clear on what they actually were.

Everything will feel very familiar to WoW fans. The options interface is disturbingly similar - right down to individual options and checkboxes. Crafting, at least the gathering professions, are identical - yes, it takes 75 points to reach the next skill level.

I made 2 different toons of different races with the Horde (I mean Defiant). Both of them progressed through the same starter area, which uses the same questing system as Cataclysm. That is to say, it's directed, and you follow a path of quests through the content. I doubt that they use any sort of phasing technology, but it's definitely directed gameplay.

I am not sure if they intend to have different starter areas for each race, but again, my two toons did the same area, and exactly the same quests. This would be a major downfall for long term viability.

Character creation was quite good I thought, there is almost infinite variability in character appearances, and lots of control over your look.

To me it seems like what Trion is doing is trying to do what Blizzard did 6 years ago: take all the good stuff out of current games and put it together in a new package with new shiny colours. It's a very close mashup of WAR and WoW. WAR contributes the public quests and feeling of constant war in the world, WoW contributes a lot of systems, talent trees, crafting, and general interface.

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Fuury posted:

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The more I read up on this game the more I am liking what it offers. Maybe I will do a pre-order and give the beta a try.

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