First thoughts

[Krag]

Ok played a Dwarf rogue to level5, an Orc Hunter to level5 and a Human priest to level6. So obviously these are only first thoughts and I've only seen the newbie areas.

Graphics: You'll either love them or hate them I suspect, personally I like them, they are a continuation of the WC style. The lack of customisation of characters in comparison to SWG or EQ2 is a bit poor but it's obvious why they've done that. Speed, even on the stupidly overcrowded newbie areas the game runs smooooooth even on my fairly antique PC. Obviously the smoothness is going to be vital in PvP so this is a good thing, even though the game is certainly less pretty than its rivals.

Sounds: Well my headphone lead is toast so I only get some channels but from what I've heard it sounds good :) the background music especially.

UI: Is fairly intuitive, I know that is customisable, but I haven't looked at that yet. My gripes based on the default UI is the inability to move windows (that i can see) and the inability to have more than one chat window (in EQ2 I have one for party/guild and private chat, one for combat info and one for the general world). Now I may have missed options here but I did look.

Tradeskills: No idea how these work, not seen any way of obtaining them yet, perhaps that only comes later? Bare in mind this is from a complete newbies perspective, I haven't looked for info outside the manual.

Randomness: You can sit on chairs! and even sleep on a bed! little touches like this are so important but so often overlooked.

I notice Eefin and Karma playing hunters, and so far I have to say my Orc Hunter is my favourtie character. I really like the class too. The rogue is ok and priest is quite fun. I did create a druid too but deleted them pretty quickly.

If I was starting on a server that wasn't going to be cleansed then I think I'd be doing the dwarf hunter thing as my primary as well. In the mean time I want to try a warrior and a mage just so I've had a look see.



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Krag
whu det da ugre admun da foroms?

[Cuscaden]

I'm playing beside Krag, and so far I've got two characters,

EN Realm 10 (PVP enabled) = Gwizzil, a gnome rogue.
EN Realm 9 (Non-PVP) = Valentina, an undead priestess.

I'm really enjoying the game. Its pretty simple so far, but its very accessible and I love the graphics. Its not as graphically complex as something like EQ2 or SWG, but I still think it looks awesome. The game exudes warcraftness through every pore of its being, I love it. I'm not sure about longevity right now, but as a first experience I like this game a lot.

Of the two characters I am playing so far I have enjoyed my undead pristess far more, I also prefer the "undead" atmosphere.....

Not too worry Elvy I'll still join you playing some namby pamby alliance character, but I know I will not be able to stay away from the undead on some server somewhere. Maybe a Gnome with a very big gun.

The tradeskill system rocks. Its simple and I love it. You get results pretty quickly. You do not have to spend 5 years of your life to produce something useful. I am playing around with skinning and tailoring.

[Krag]

Played a Tauren Warrior last night up to almost level 11

Tradeskills rock, I have fishing, first aid, mining and blacksmithing. If you like the intensive side of tradeskills in the manner of SWG/EQ2 then it might seem a bit basic I guess, but I find it whole lot more fun and accessible. It is also not RSI inducing, which is nice.

Levelling certainly is easy and I've not been XP hunting at all, I've just been working through quests naturally and levelling at a good rate.

The smoothness of gameplay and graphics still continue to impress, especially the draw distance.

I doubt I'd play a warrior in live, but thats why I'm playing one now so I won't repeat myself later. I like the way the different classes get power different ways, mages and priest types have mana, rogues get a limited but very fast recharging action pool and warriors get rage points. When warriors clomp things, as the rage points build up they can use them to activate special moves, the rage points then decay over time.

The horde rock, I definetly think they are more fun than the alliance, I will have an orc in Live for sure.


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Krag
whu det da ugre admun da foroms?

[Kil.]

You can have 4 trade skills on the same character?

[ratdeath]

Question :)

Are there any chatbubbles or chat above head in WoW?

[Krag]

Nope, which is a bit sucky, but then again it's another lag prevention mechanism I feel.

Corellia starport anyone?
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Krag
whu det da ugre admun da foroms?

[Krag]

2 primary ones (mining and blacksmith in my case) and as many secondary as you like. Primary ones can be unlearnt (you'll lose all XP so can't relearn and regain the same place later) if you don't get on with them.

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/professions/
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Krag
whu det da ugre admun da foroms?

[ratdeath]

I doubt the chatbubbles was the main cause of that lagfeast :)

Another thing that really kills of RP feeling, the chat window
feels like a irc client wrapped around some 3D game engine....

I saw a picture from some Shadowclan meeting and I guess they
were yelling a lot of stuff and talking but it looked just dead
as the HUD was turned off for the screenshot I guess.

I will yell for chatbubbles when I get access to the game :D
Ofcourse with the option to have them off for any chatbubblehater. hirr

[Krag]

It is a shame, I like chat bubbles!

...but I can live without them.

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Krag
whu det da ugre admun da foroms?

[Karma]

Fishing, cooking and healing are secondary professions and apart from the two main professions you can choose them all. Do it! However for a beta they are just a little too time consuming, especially the fishing.

Healing as far as I practised it in USFB rather goes up with the creation of bandages than with healing. The advantage: It runs on another counter and you can drink a potion and apply bandages the very same second. As a noncaster I also made use of bandages to heal strangers in critical situations while passing by.

Fishing and cooking obviously provide you (and your comrades or pet) with high quality food which later has nice buffs coming with it. Especially on higher levels hunters' pets can be kept in a good mood a lot easier with cooked food than with raw meat.

If you are planning to explore hostile environments where you might strand and run out of supplies all secondary professions are a must if you want to avoid recalling and then eventually run back a looong way.

[Kil.]

I completely agree with you. If theres one feature Id love to see added its the words above your head thingy.

[Kil.]

Thanks for the info. Has anybody tried enchanting? Ive tried to figure out whats the best skill to go along with it and I can only think of blacksmithing but without mining thats pretty useless.

[ratdeath]

Made my first steps in WoW yesterday, the feeling in WoW makes
up for a less advanced graphic engine (like EQ2).

Playing on the En Final Beta Server (PVP) 6.

Some pics :)

http://www.vegasys.com/~spikes/pirotezzwow.jpg
http://www.vegasys.com/~spikes/pirotezzwow2.jpg
http://www.vegasys.com/~spikes/pirotezzwow3.jpg

[Elveng]

That char look rather boney to me :9 will probably be easy to kill with couple of night Elves arrows }(

[ratdeath]

Hiss!!
Bring them elvess on.. fresch soulssss

:p

[Viconius]

Doubt its lag protection, as text gets prodcast anyway. Its Blizzard people being ex-EverCrack players. :)
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Viconius
traveller@rper.org

[Krag]

Well EQ2 has chat bubbles :P

But I don't mean network lag, I mean graphical lag.


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Krag
whu det da ugre admun da foroms?