11-15-2007, 07:08 PM
I decided to pick up the game last Thursday after passing my first MCP for getting my MCSE upgraded to Windows Server 2003 and since my next test isn't till next Wednesday, I spent from that Thursday night through to Monday relaxing and playing it and then finishing up normal Tuesday night and last night in study breaks.
In my opinion, the game should have been held back and tested further as there are a ton of issues with the game as it stands right now. I decided to play a Blademaster as my first class and this class is really an exercise in frustration in a number of areas during the game. The bane for this class is the dry river areas where you have large open areas with some cover here and there, but when you have the level filled with ranged mobs, expect to die...a lot...even with charge and the aura that destroys incoming ranged attacks (because you're only going to be level 15 to 19 in this time period and may have a max of 2/4 in the aura for a total possible of destroying incoming shots of 30% max and mobs are typically firing 2 to 3 shots each with each shot doing around 30 to 40 damage per shot).
Another major issue for the Blademaster (and this may carry over to the Guardian as well) is that Stun defense is probably the most important defence skill you can get as typically when you are stunned in melee combat, you're likely to die if you're not near full health or the mobs are close to death themselves (and even then you can still die). The other sad thing about the Blademaster is it is mostly a one hit wonder since you will be dealing with a lot of packs, you will depends more on skills like Sword of Justice and Sweeping strikes and trying to get things like Sword of Authority for single mobs like bosses means you have to gimp yourself a lot for dealing with packs of mobs (which is what you will see a lot of, it's difficult, if not impossible, to split off single mobs most of the time and deal with them singly). The Surges are also a waste of points grabbing them. While you could potentially do some big damage as the various Surge powers do stack, trying to keep them up will be problematic (you have to get the killing blow on the mob with the surge attack to get the surge to stack up and/or refresh as they last 12 seconds after the last killing blow with the surge attack).
If you do not buy Aura of Power to high level and Matched Blades to high level, you're going to be in for a world of hurt later in the game as you will be losing you power too frequently from skill usage and you will need a huge amount of will to use two weapons along with the various relics, fuels, and batteries to boost those weapons further. In essence, by the time you get to 50, you will most likely have spent 18 talent points into those two skills (10 to Aura of Power and 8 to Matched Blades) leaving you with 31 talent points to spend on other skills (another reason why trying to go heavy surge will not work and why trying to spread your points out will ultimately doom your character even though FSS has said you should be able to spread out your points more unlike D2 to make your character viable, but it won't work as you can see this occuring in late Act 4 and Act 5 of normal where it really gets painful if you haven't specialized).
Terrain bugs are also a major issue in the game where it is not uncommon to get stuck in the terrain in outdoor areas and a few indoor areas (indoor area it's much less likely to happen, but in the dry river bed areas it is a near constant issue and you typically have to use the terrain to get close to mob packs there, so getting stuck is a very real issue to the Templar character classes). Another aspect of terrain issues, not sure if it's a bug, but unlike the indoor areas, outdoor areas (again, mainly the dry river bed areas) you will end up with a large number of mobs near your gate and this too can get you killed as a melee character (although melee characters may have this a little more easy in that they may be able to take out several mobs before going down themselves :blink:). Another terrain bug is that mobs that are on a level above or below you, and sometimes attack you in melee where you cannot attack them back. Another bug that hurts melee classes as well is that some normal sized mobs, like zombies, can attack you in melee while you cannot attack them which can be frustrating as well.
As to the story, there was only one minor plot twist, and I kinda saw it coming anyway, was pretty weak. It was basically D1's story rewritten with instead of the character shoving a crystal in their forehead at the end, it was one of the NPCs. The story lines behind some of the off quests where actually more engrossing than the main story arc (Lucius and 314 was hillarious and a well needed comic relief throughout the game). You see all the characters from D1 in the game as well with Murmur playing the part of Cain (sagely advice), Aphrun also played the role of Cain to an extent as well (putting the pieces of the puzzle together and pushing you onward), the various merchant taking Griswold's part, Healers doing the role of Pepin, the builder NPCs acting in the stead of Wirt on unusual items, and various NPCs in the stations giving out quests like the other NPCs did in D1.
Overall, from looking at the game so far, it feels like what FSS was doing was making a new take on Diablo while throwing in a few D2 affects, pulling some things from WoW (there is a triage mini-game in the game setup exactly like the WoW quest to become an Artisan in first aid skill), and trying to make it more of a FPS/TPS. My advice to anyone looking at the game right now, wait a few patches for them to get things worked out more as right now the game has a lot of bugs and there are some definite balance issues for melee classes (they may be there for the caster and ranged classes as well, but they're quite glaring for melee) right now that need to be worked out.
In my opinion, the game should have been held back and tested further as there are a ton of issues with the game as it stands right now. I decided to play a Blademaster as my first class and this class is really an exercise in frustration in a number of areas during the game. The bane for this class is the dry river areas where you have large open areas with some cover here and there, but when you have the level filled with ranged mobs, expect to die...a lot...even with charge and the aura that destroys incoming ranged attacks (because you're only going to be level 15 to 19 in this time period and may have a max of 2/4 in the aura for a total possible of destroying incoming shots of 30% max and mobs are typically firing 2 to 3 shots each with each shot doing around 30 to 40 damage per shot).
Another major issue for the Blademaster (and this may carry over to the Guardian as well) is that Stun defense is probably the most important defence skill you can get as typically when you are stunned in melee combat, you're likely to die if you're not near full health or the mobs are close to death themselves (and even then you can still die). The other sad thing about the Blademaster is it is mostly a one hit wonder since you will be dealing with a lot of packs, you will depends more on skills like Sword of Justice and Sweeping strikes and trying to get things like Sword of Authority for single mobs like bosses means you have to gimp yourself a lot for dealing with packs of mobs (which is what you will see a lot of, it's difficult, if not impossible, to split off single mobs most of the time and deal with them singly). The Surges are also a waste of points grabbing them. While you could potentially do some big damage as the various Surge powers do stack, trying to keep them up will be problematic (you have to get the killing blow on the mob with the surge attack to get the surge to stack up and/or refresh as they last 12 seconds after the last killing blow with the surge attack).
If you do not buy Aura of Power to high level and Matched Blades to high level, you're going to be in for a world of hurt later in the game as you will be losing you power too frequently from skill usage and you will need a huge amount of will to use two weapons along with the various relics, fuels, and batteries to boost those weapons further. In essence, by the time you get to 50, you will most likely have spent 18 talent points into those two skills (10 to Aura of Power and 8 to Matched Blades) leaving you with 31 talent points to spend on other skills (another reason why trying to go heavy surge will not work and why trying to spread your points out will ultimately doom your character even though FSS has said you should be able to spread out your points more unlike D2 to make your character viable, but it won't work as you can see this occuring in late Act 4 and Act 5 of normal where it really gets painful if you haven't specialized).
Terrain bugs are also a major issue in the game where it is not uncommon to get stuck in the terrain in outdoor areas and a few indoor areas (indoor area it's much less likely to happen, but in the dry river bed areas it is a near constant issue and you typically have to use the terrain to get close to mob packs there, so getting stuck is a very real issue to the Templar character classes). Another aspect of terrain issues, not sure if it's a bug, but unlike the indoor areas, outdoor areas (again, mainly the dry river bed areas) you will end up with a large number of mobs near your gate and this too can get you killed as a melee character (although melee characters may have this a little more easy in that they may be able to take out several mobs before going down themselves :blink:). Another terrain bug is that mobs that are on a level above or below you, and sometimes attack you in melee where you cannot attack them back. Another bug that hurts melee classes as well is that some normal sized mobs, like zombies, can attack you in melee while you cannot attack them which can be frustrating as well.
As to the story, there was only one minor plot twist, and I kinda saw it coming anyway, was pretty weak. It was basically D1's story rewritten with instead of the character shoving a crystal in their forehead at the end, it was one of the NPCs. The story lines behind some of the off quests where actually more engrossing than the main story arc (Lucius and 314 was hillarious and a well needed comic relief throughout the game). You see all the characters from D1 in the game as well with Murmur playing the part of Cain (sagely advice), Aphrun also played the role of Cain to an extent as well (putting the pieces of the puzzle together and pushing you onward), the various merchant taking Griswold's part, Healers doing the role of Pepin, the builder NPCs acting in the stead of Wirt on unusual items, and various NPCs in the stations giving out quests like the other NPCs did in D1.
Overall, from looking at the game so far, it feels like what FSS was doing was making a new take on Diablo while throwing in a few D2 affects, pulling some things from WoW (there is a triage mini-game in the game setup exactly like the WoW quest to become an Artisan in first aid skill), and trying to make it more of a FPS/TPS. My advice to anyone looking at the game right now, wait a few patches for them to get things worked out more as right now the game has a lot of bugs and there are some definite balance issues for melee classes (they may be there for the caster and ranged classes as well, but they're quite glaring for melee) right now that need to be worked out.
Sith Warriors - They only class that gets a new room added to their ship after leaving Hoth, they get a Brooncloset
Einstein said Everything is Relative.
Heisenberg said Everything is Uncertain.
Therefore, everything is relatively uncertain.
Einstein said Everything is Relative.
Heisenberg said Everything is Uncertain.
Therefore, everything is relatively uncertain.