Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning

[Phospholipid]

Each class has a mechanic which it operates around. I've only played two so far, the Witch Hunter and the Swordmaster. The Witch Hunter's mechanic is quite similar to the rogue combo point system in WoW, although the WH's executions are ranged. The SM operates around a three-tiered balance system, which dictates what skills can be used at any given time.

I haven't played a Bright Wizard, but I believe their class mechanic is called 'combustion.' You can kill yourself with it if you aren't careful.


As for what differentiates it from WoW...everything, except the PvE (aside from public quests). The PvE is comparable to that of WoW/LotRO, but the thing is, you aren't forced to PvE. The game was designed around the concept of RvR, which I won't explain here (take a look at the official website).


Warhammer is to WoW what WoW was to EQ. Many of WoW's tedious elements and game systems have been tweaked or eliminated.

I've been playing for two days and I'm completely addicted :drunk:

[L’Age d’or]

I play on Aussie servers as they are closer to my timezone, but I could have an alt on your server too, what server you guys mostly play on?

[Commodore]

As someone who was in beta and wasn't that impressed, the game is really growing on me I have to admit.

Playing a Dwarf Ironbreaker on Phoenix Throne server

[Ouroboros]

I'm going to have to buy this then, when I get a job.

[Shryke]

[quote name='Ouroboros' post='1523881' date='Sep 18 2008, 21.01']So how do the classes handle? What really differentiates it from WoW?

Most importantly, is a Bright Wizard worth playing?[/quote]

All classes have Action Points, instead of mana/whatever. It's like Energy on a rogue, but there's more of it.

PvE is the usual, but with Public Quests (basically massive quests that everyone in the area does together). Some neat innovations in some small areas.

PvP is like DOAC. Fight over keeps and such, push towards the enemies capital and then sack their city for loot. There's also Scenarios, which are like WoW battlegrounds.

Some neat stuff is that taunt/de-taunt works in PvP. Taunts cause you to do 30% more damage till that opponent hits you 3 times. Group taunts cause all effect players to do 30% less damage to anyone but you till they hit you 3 times. Detaunts cause the enemy to do 50% less damage to you for 15 seconds, unless you attack them. (this, imo, is the coolest new thing they came up with)

There's basically 11 class types, with each side having one of each kind, except for the tanks. (There were originally 12, but 4 classes got cut at the last minute and may return at some point) So, 20 classes, 10 per side, but most have a mirror class on the other side.

[b][u]Tanks[/u][/b]

[b]Black Orc/Swordmaster:[/b] Have a 3 step combo system. Starting moves unlock middle moves which unlock finishing moves.

[b]Chosen:[/b] Aura Tank. Only on the Destruction side. Auras buff your group and debuff the enemy. You can "twist" the auras because they last for 12 seconds after you activate another aura, allowing you to have 2 up at once.

[b]Iron-Breaker:[/b] Only on the Order side. Builds "Grudge" when he or a player he designates his "Oath Friend" gets hit. Some of your moves use up Grudge while others don't but are more powerful the more grudge you have built up.


[b][u]Healers[/u][/b]

[b]Shaman/Archmage:[/b] Healers and nukers. Eveytime you heal, your damage spells get buffed (hit harder or cast faster) and vice verse. So if your healing a bunch, you can occasionally throw out a really hard hitting instant nuke.

[b]Zealot/Rune Priest:[/b] The most healy of the healers. Have buffs they can cast on people that can be deactivated by the player in question to get a boost or damage on the enemy.

[b]Warrior Priest/Disciple of Khaine:[/b] Melee healers. They build up their healing resources by attacking, and then use that resource to ... heal.


[b][u]Melee DPS[/u][/b]

[b]Witch Hunter/Witch Elf:[/b] Like a WoW Rogue. Build combo points, do finishers.

[b]Marauder:[/b] Destruction only. Can change one of your arms into different mutations (club, claw or blade) which unlock different melee abilities.

[b]White Lion:[/b] Order only. Has a lion as a pet. 3 lion stances. He either tanks for you, or you tank for him, or you both fight together.


[b][u]Range DPS[/u][/b]

[b]Sorceress/Bright Wizard:[/b] Pure Nuking class. Certain of your better nukes build up Combustion/Dark Magic. The more you have, the more damage you do. But the more you have, the higher the your better spells have of causing you to blow yourself up and do damage/knock you down.

[b]Magus/Engineer:[/b] Turret class. You have attack spells/shots/grenade and can also summon turrets/demons that stay in one spot and attack enemies around them.

[b]Shadow Warrior:[/b] Order only. The bow class. You have 3 stances Scout/Skirmish/Assault that correspond with long range/close range and mobility/melee. Each stance gives you a buff and unlocks certain abilities.

[b]Squig Herder:[/b] Destruction Only. A bow class with pets. You've got different types of squigs that are for different uses.

That's all I can think of right now.

[Ouroboros]

Sounds like WoW, only fun. So in other words it doesn't sound like WoW at all.

[Shryke]

It all depends what you wanted out of WoW.

[Daeric]

My friends keep poking me to try and get me as destro with them, normally I would say yes and play it abit with them but they rolled on an Open server and I don't particualry fancy tier higher people being able to come down to a tier lower zone and smacking me around.

Much prefer either doing scenarios or running around in an rvr zone were I think I surprised a level 11 Witch Elf by refusing to keel overe and die quickly. It took an age, a Bright Wizard came wandering past and blew it up.

[Ouroboros]

[quote name='Shryke' post='1524170' date='Sep 19 2008, 03.32']It all depends what you wanted out of WoW.[/quote]
Well having 'fun' would be the major thing so yeah. Gonna check this out.

[Daeric]

The graphics aren't as clean cut as WoW, but compared to how WoW was when it was first released bug wise its miles ahead.

[Minaku]

I played bright wizard during invite only weekend, and I will tell you that if you enjoy nuking a la elementalist in Guild Wars, there is one spell that will make this class for you. I believe you get it at level 6, I can't remember its name, and it is a fireball that does an aoe detonation upon impact.

Best.

Sound effect.

Ever.

That about sums up why I want to play any nuking class. My nukes need to explode, like bombs.

[Daeric]

Just a quick post before I have to rush toc atch the train for Dinner out with the extended family.

Got Natures Blade enchant about 50 minutes ago and I went into the Khaines Embrace scenario with it, if taunting the enemy fails to get them to hit you instead (theres a surprising number who think that they can ignore the 30% extra damage from a tank hitting them) random procs hitting a group and stealing their stats will, an AM had fun keeping me up against 4 DoK (god they peak so early, I've heard they get alot worse when Healing reductions start kicking in) just because Natures Blade had stolen most of their useful stats and they were pinging off the meatshield :P (only had to make sure that two of them didn't try to gank the AM the others were suffering from tunnel vision)

[potsherds]

Soooo... how's the character creation for this game? :P

[Commodore]

[quote name='potsherds' post='1524574' date='Sep 19 2008, 11.22']Soooo... how's the character creation for this game? :P[/quote]

nothing revolutionary, but decent

[Darian Frey]

Arrives tomorrow. We shall see!

[BlueRose]

the faces and hair styles are nothing spectacular.
Personally I think the graphics are prettier than wow.

I'm not 100% sold on this swordmaster, I played the Ironbreaker too and I might like it more. But I'll give the swordmaster a chance.
Also, I can easily pvp as a tank, which is great.


Come play on Sea of Claws if you're Order! (core north american server)

[Commodore]

I would go with an RP server tbh, you don't have to roleplay but it's hilarious to meet people that do, plus you don't have to fight people with names like "pwnzedj00"

[Shryke]

There's already a mod out to "Orcasize" anything you say.

[potsherds]

[quote name='BlueRose' post='1524749' date='Sep 19 2008, 19.20']the faces and hair styles are nothing spectacular.
Personally I think the graphics are prettier than wow.

I'm not 100% sold on this swordmaster, I played the Ironbreaker too and I might like it more. But I'll give the swordmaster a chance.
Also, I can easily pvp as a tank, which is great.


Come play on Sea of Claws if you're Order! (core north american server)[/quote]
I prefer WAR's character creation to WoW...barely, I guess. Might just be the 'ooh, new and shiny!' effect, but I'm rather sick of all the cartoon colored hair and childish hair styles in WoW, so I like something a little more realistic. I still would have liked a few slider bars/options of say, height and girth, but eh, oh well.

Not terribly happy that most of Destruction is limited to male characters, iirc. Not that I don't really like the witch elf. :P I think she's terribly under-dressed though, although a fair bit of skin is expected with that sort of character.

I attempted a high elf bow person...can't remember the title, and didn't progress past lvl 2 before trying something else. I'm rather surprised how much I disliked it. Playing a white lion now. Me likey. I'm definitely a fan of using axes, don't know why. I definitely prefer DPS characters to healers and tanks, but I'm usually more a fan of ranged DPS. :unsure:

Another thing I like, if you're willing to spend the money, is the ability to color coordinate your gear, and individualize it as well, since I have yet to see anyone running around with burnt orange or sunshine yellow on their gear, other than a few NPC's. I've enjoyed the RvR so far. Probably since both times I played Khaine's something or other (basically capture the flag) Alliance won. :)

The game does lag occasionally, not sure if it's server issues, or my laptop issues. Alt-tab'ing to the desktop has thus far been 50/50 on whether or not I have to close the game because the graphics won't show up when I alt-tab back. >.< And about 1 out of 4 or 5 times, something bugs when attacking a baddie, and it tells me the dude's too far away when he's right in front of me. I hope that's not something related to a bad game install or whatever, and it'll soon be fixed by the folks in charge.

[Commodore]

[quote name='potsherds' post='1525674' date='Sep 20 2008, 17.15']Another thing I like, if you're willing to spend the money, is the ability to color coordinate your gear, and individualize it as well, since I have yet to see anyone running around with burnt orange or sunshine yellow on their gear, other than a few NPC's.[/quote]

In the beta the dye colors were extremely bright, you could make Witch Hunters look just like Michael Jackson in Moonwalker. A bunch of testers recommended they just use the same colors as are offered with the table top game to paint figurines, and I think that's what they went with.