Warhammer Passes the Acid Test

I’ve been thinking a lot about WAR since playing in the Preview Weekend Event.  I’m excited about the Headstart and release.  It’s not a perfect implementation – what game is anyway?  I’m ready to get started for real and burn some face in RVR.

I’ve never had such a hard time deciding on a class which is a very pleasant problem to be debating.  AOC combat and stellar graphics aside, WAR is definitely most fun that I’ve had since falling in love with WOW.  It’s the first to combine the other things I look for in my MMO of choice.  If this were a PVE focused game, I’d be playing the Warrior Priest for sure.  It’s not, so I have to consider that I’m not the best at doing fancy foot work with a melee class against other players, especially hardcore PVPers.  I found that I could really rock the class in the PVE scenarios but was getting busted up in PVP.  Some of it could be attributed to the sluggish combat and the Righteous Fury doesn’t regenerate fast enough to really heal during the focus-fire onslaught brought to bear on healing classes.  My swings were slow and not landing, hence I couldn’t heal myself let alone others in a pinch.  I'm sure part of the issue was my own lack of skill but I think there are game mechanics that should and will likely be addressed.

The Rune Priest was another shocking delight for me to play.  I say shocking because I don’t’ really want to be part of the stunted growth race.  It’s funny when you try something on a lark and end up liking it.  I enjoyed the starting area very much and even at the low-levels, I could see how well this class performed in RVR.  If I go with a healing class this is my favorite.  I can’t even believe that I’m considering rolling a dwarf.

The shining star of my experience was the Bright Wizard.  The Empire zone was to my tastes – the atmosphere and the quests.  The class itself just smacks of hotness and pimpage.  They are a true glass cannon which is fine and as it should be designed.  A BW can rock your world if you let them get off their big spells.  Yet they are vulnerable, squishy and apt to die in short order when confronted by melee.  This is what the WOW Mages aspire to be but were complaining they were not.  This class is a Fire Mage for all intent and purposes but can be spec’d to operate more like a WOW-lock, AOE specialist or all out direct damage.  If you play WOW, think 3-minute Mage damage without being limited to three minutes.  *giggles*  My only concern is that there will be far too many of these running around because they are that good.  I don’t think they are OP but they play with all the bad-ass and over the top feeling many of us crave in our MMO persona.

If you haven't had the pleasure of playing any aspect of WAR BETA you should check out the blog and videos from Wall of Text.  He demonstrates several classes, two of which are in my top 3 list.  I hesitate promoting this site out of fear of encouraging more Bright Wizards.  However, his videos are too good not to be shared.  *cries and curses anyone who jumps on the BW bandwagon*

Bright Wizard Beta Video from Wall of Text blog

bw_lvl31_rvr3.wmv

Given that I think healers will be in short supply, I’m really leaning toward the Rune Priest to help my faction be successful in RVR.  I rarely roll a healer first because of the downsides of leveling one solo or doing PUGs.  However, I don’t think that will be as much of an issue in WAR as it is in other games, so the Rune Priest is a very strong contender as my main.  Normally, I would have selected an Elf healing class but that race and zone was so uninspiring I bailed on it too early to see what that Priest can do.

As to the acid test, you can see that I’ve put a lot of time into thinking about the game since playing it so that tells me it’s all that I wanted and expected.  My nephew called on Tuesday asking if I was still in BETA and if he could come over to play. *smile*  I was sad to inform him that I was not but promised to order him a CE copy so he could join the Headstart.  WAR Mission accomplished – they’ve hooked two of us and the third, my younger nephew, will simply follow suit.  I was happy to see an AOC-like map that helped you locate mission objectives.  It can be turned off for those who don’t want it.  The WAR map features will be useful to my youngest nephew, who always had trouble completing quest objectives alone.  Consequently, he often wasted time farming mobs in areas too low to be of benefit, because he didn’t understand where to go to work on his quest log.  My son would run him around a lot and group with him, but he’s gone now so that’s not an option. *sigh*

Comments

[JoBildo]

Runepriests and Warrior Priests truly to rock the "shiz" in WAR. They can both be a bit hard to get used to in RvR, but when CoW gets to the point where we coordinate Keep Battles or things like that, they'll both come in extremely handy.

I'm thinking about the WP myself lately. Torn between them and the White Lion mainly.

Oh, and CoW does allow friends and family to join even after the open enrollment period has ended. Just let Genda know who to look for. Have them fill out the application like you did, and they'll be in in short order if they wish to tag along.

[Scott]

I had a similiar dillema as you, expecting I'd be sold on the Destruction side with the Dark Elves and Chosen.. only to end up liking the Order with the mirror classes of the Bright Wizard, and much to my surprise the fat little tub of lards like the Ironbreaker and Rune Priest.

BTW the Bright Wizard is no more powerfull that the Sorceress, and that power comes at the cost of survivability as you noted. A tank with a healer backing them up is 5x more valuable than any Sorceress or Bright Wizard, as you'll be able to break through any front line and easily kill or help your team kill enough enemies to make the mages jealous.

[Saylah]

@Bildo - its fun to have this type of problem and you've been playing for a while so I can imagine how much more you've seen than I did during the PE.

@Scott - Yes, I did the Sorc and out of all the Destruction that was the only DPS class I could consider. But the flavor of the BW is just so TIGHT! That plus liking the zone were the final straw that put the kibosh on me being Destruction.

In all the years that I played WOW, I started characters in the racial zones but always ended up racing to the Eastern Kingdom to do the GS to SS trek. It remains my favorite level track of the game. Westfall is hands down my favorite leveling zone and oh I loved fighting Defias. :-)

The only thing I enjoyed as much, was the look and feel of Zangermarsh but I didn't care of the quests.

[coppertopper]

I didn't know the King from BK was a playable class!

[Saylah]

@Copper - Yep, where you been? He gave up grillin' burgers for melting faces.

[Blacknimbus]

When does the Open Beta start? I've pre-ordered and have my key, but don't know when that begins.

[Saylah]

Open BETA starts on Sept 7th. I thought CE copies were getting closed BETA but it didn't work exactly like that. :-(

[Blacknimbus]

Oh, Wizard101 is having an open beta, just in case anyone was looking forward to trying it.