Preview Weekend review
Sorry this is a bit late, but here’s my review of the game based on preview weekend a couple of weeks ago.
Organdonar and I joined up for some fun in some of the scenarios. Scenarios are like AV or WSG in WoW, except you can queue from anywhere in the world. When you are done with the scenario, the game puts you back where you were when you left the PVE world. We initially tried to play on Destruction, but the queues were literally 45 minutes. It reminded me of the queues we had to put up with when WoW implemented the dreaded 2.4 patch. So we switched over to Order and gave it a shot.
There we reigned supreme, or at least, according to the screenshots. Actually my photography kind of sucked. I’ve completely lost my touch with all these months away from gaming. I didn’t even get some battle shots. Oh well, heres what the scoreboard looks like:
Burnination was my Bright Wizard, the class I plan to play on launch. Bright Wizards are hella fun because if you’re not careful you blow up and die. As Organdonar can attest, I did this several times without complaint.
Notice to the far right there’s an XP column. Do not ignore this. The experience in a BG is awesome. And from our perspective playing Order, we got so much experience so quickly we could barely get out of the start area before we were too big for it.
Organdonar did really well as he played his dwarven Rune Priest.
Notice how Organ is level 6 (they call it ranks in Warhammer). Each scenario has a level limit, but even if you are at the lower end of the spectrum, the game boosts your hit points and armor (and maybe your spells?) to levels 8, 18, 28 and 39 depending on the scenario.
There is also a large open-world RVR aspect to the game. At level 11, it was really fun. I can’t wait to see what it’s like at higher levels.
Also when you PVP you get points called renown. You gain ranks with renown, like realm points in DAOC. You can spend your renown on abilities, like more intelligence or the ability to absorb damage. Also, with higher renown ranks you can unlock equipment. Yes this is all through PVP. I couldn’t tell as I only attained level 11 during preview weekend, but I think you don’t have to PVE at all to gain levels or gear.
Once we know what server we’re going to be on, we’ll post in the forums. Hope to see you all there.