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First Impressions...All Over Again - Bolty - 04-16-2004
I wanted to try a priest. Really. But reading the changes Blizzard made to the Mage class, I HAD to play another one. Plus, I wanted to see if I'd have a hard time like I did in Phase 1. With the learning curve out of the way, starting out was a breeze this time. After about 5 hours of play, I'm a level 8 undead Mage named TheBolt (please look me up to sign our guild charter this weekend!).
Hooboy, it's been mentioned here before, but Blizzard really dropped the ball on the starting zone of the Undead race. There were far too many people competing for far too few monster kills. One quest had you going to kill some humans, and there was only one camp of them in the whole area. The second monsters spawned, they were tagged, and players were running around desperately trying to get in that first hit so they could claim the kill. Someone pointed out in general chat that by filtering the population window, he found there were over 200 Undead and over 200 Tauren players. However, there were only 40 Troll and 80 Orc players. It's clear what the popular races were. I was actually thinking of playing a Troll until I saw that the Undead start out with much better Intelligence and Spirit. Blizzard, that's LAME. The races should be equal across the board, and while it may seem silly to have gnomes with the same strength as Taurens, it's essential to avoid the scenario where all warrior players pick the same race, and all mages pick the same race, and all rogues pick the same race, etc etc etc. Races SHOULDN'T MATTER and it should be up to the players what they want to be/look like only. I will be using the /suggest function on this issue quite a bit, and if you agree with me, please do so as well while playing. Sure, you COULD pick another race, but you'd be shortchanging yourself. Thus, the vast majority of Mages, over the long run, will wind up being one of two races that give the most starting intelligence and spirit for the Horde and the Alliance. All the Warriors will be Taurens. Blah.
I'm happy to say that once you get over the initial adjustment of MMORPG play, you will do fine. It also helps to not play a Mage when they stink, but that's another matter. Mages have been beefed up significantly in this patch in order to address their lack of crowd control and the downtime they always face.
First of all, as a Mage (or Priest, really), after every level up you need to max out your Intelligence and Spirit. Since these are the primary attributes, they come cheap. In Phase 1, spirit was an afterthought; it had such little effect that raising it was pointless. Spirit has been given a very significant boost in Phase 2, and it takes so much less "downtime" between fights as a Mage that drinking is rare. In Phase 1, you'd have to stop and drink after pretty much every solo fight, since it would take a good half of your mana to kill one mob and you wouldn't want to risk running out on your next fight. This started getting better around level 20 for me, where I could do 2 fights before drinking, but overall it was a slow and tedious process.
I found myself fighting mobs 3-4 levels ABOVE me last night, even before I started partying with MongoJerry. Doing so in Phase 1 would have been suicide, since most spell attacks would be resisted. I don't have Frost Nova yet to freeze monsters in place (and died horribly being reminded of that). I foolishly took on two mobs at once last night and got creamed when I forgot I don't yet have Frost Nova (or Sleep, which comes at level 8), but that's my own stupidity.
Stuttering seems to have been reduced. My attacks still get interrupted, but not as often and not as badly. I mentioned that to Mongo and he believed this was due to his Holy Shields he was casting on me, but I noticed this before we started partying. Now that I have Sleep, obtained just before I had to Sleep in Real Lifeâ¢, I can actually take on more than one mob at the same time! Whoopie! :)
Unfortunately, I haven't played any other classes yet, so it's hard to compare. But Mages in Phase 1 compared to Mages in Phase 2 is like night and day. The Spirit boost is a large kicker. If you read my earlier reports, you might recall how I noted that the melee classes could just move from mob to mob to mob with little interruption, while I had to sit down and drink after each fight. No longer. I commented to Mongo yesterday that this was more like an action game now, and it was quite fun. It's still tough - I died 3 or 4 times last night when I made errors in judgement - but with each death, I knew the fault lay entirely on my goof and not the Mage's inability to take on mobs due to the stuttering, spell resists, and lack of crowd control. However, Mages can now go from mob to mob to mob. At level 7, with spirit maxed out for my character level, I was regenerating about 7-10 mana per second. With 250 mana, that's a huge gob! To kill a mob solo would require about 150 mana, meaning around 15 seconds to be back up to full power. Since much of that time is used for looting the corpse, targeting another mob, and approaching attack range, I was able to do the mob-to-mob-to-mob attacking the melee classes have enjoyed, only needing to stop if the previous mob really roughed me up. My hit points are still way low (100) and my armor stinks, so I have to be careful, but then again I didn't place any points in Stamina. My health regenerates about 3 per second. Only once last night did I feel the need to stop and drink/eat after a mob really took a lot out of me to kill and I didn't want to wait for the regen of Spirit.
Perhaps Blizzard has beefed up Spirit too much, but then again I have no basis of comparison so I won't claim that. I know Mages seem much more useful than before, in solo AND in groups (we have Sleep). In parties, we won't be forced to stop and drink while the other party members watch and tap their feet. We still possess paper-thin armor and low hit points, and that's the way it should be. With the new monster tapping system, there could be issues. Mages can run up to a mob and cast an instant-cast spell to tap it before the melee classes can reach it. Of course, doing this too much while playing solo is not smart, since you'd then have a rampaging monster heading for you, leaving you no chance to get off a timered spell before it reaches melee range.
I have yet to face off against ranged (archer) attackers. I did face some spellcasters, but in WoW, monster spellcasters have low hit points to compensate for their high damage. I could take them down easily enough, since I can get 2 shots off before they can get one at me. My first shot wakes them up, but I'm already casting my second shot before the first one reaches them. Mages need this kind of advantage, especially against charging melee mobs - the ability to nail them with a couple of shots before they close in to melee range. Generally as a Mage, if you lose that "initiative," you should seriously consider fleeing. You don't have the hit points and armor to go toe-to-toe with a melee mob for very long, especially before you get Frost Nova to freeze them in place as you pull away.
I have not yet gotten to try out Sleep, but it's just what the Mage needed to be able to solo in this game and handle 2 mobs at once. Blizzard removed Phantasm, the Mage's semi-minion making spell. I call it "semi" because it only spawned on a per-monster basis, had too few hit points, and never drew aggro at all. I think that's a good move - minions belong to Warlocks and other classes. Sleep, or Blinding, or something like that is more suited to a Mage. In fact, Blinding would be a better alternative, I think - it would protect the Mage, but not the melee classes who might get next to the mob. The Mage should not be a Priest.
Anyhow, enough about the Mage. Those of you who have played the other classes, can you make any comparisons between Phase 1 and Phase 2? How does the Power system work out for Warriors - supposedly now your equipment makes less of a deal? I know that my melee damage is incredibly wimpy now (as it should be). I have to get me a wand, which will do magical damage instead of physical.
-Bolty
First Impressions...All Over Again - Jarulf - 04-16-2004
Just a quick comment on the starting stats and race/class. You should also factor in the cost to buy new stat points. Sure, if you will only ever invest in, say, Spirit and Inteligence, go for the max starting value. However, if you ever intent do invest even just some points in some other stat, it might actually be more worthwhile to invest in a race that has such a higher starting cost for that stat since it cost 2 (or even 3 in some cases) for a single point. As such, you should really check the stats times the cost to increase them for the stats you intend to increase.
Also note that, based on the ammount of skill points one seem to get (based on the cost of trade skill costs), one will really have a LOT of skill points, so it might not be that big factor. But we have to see that. When I wrote my post on starting stats and costs, I really had no idea how many stat points one will get, at say level 30, to invest.
First Impressions...All Over Again - Jim - 04-16-2004
Bolty Posted: Apr 16 2004, 07:41 AM
Quote:I found myself fighting mobs 3-4 levels ABOVE me last night, even before I started partying with MongoJerry. Doing so in Phase 1 would have been suicide, since most spell attacks would be resisted. I don't have Frost Nova yet to freeze monsters in place (and died horribly being reminded of that). I foolishly took on two mobs at once last night and got creamed when I forgot I don't yet have Frost Nova (or Sleep, which comes at level 8), but that's my own stupidity.
Hi
WoW Phase 2 sounds like major balancing. Also sounds like a Xmas release IF we are lucky, would you say no less than 5 more months for the Beta to continue at this point?
Sorry I can only compare WoW to Asheron's Call 1 since it is the only MMORPG I'm playing at this time. AC has a top char level of 126. My friend has a lv 126 Mage & is my fighting partner, my Melee fighter is 109. We hunt together in VOD [Valley of Death] rightly named since we do Die at least once a night.
I think it is more fun when one class has to depend on another for balance against the Higher level MOBs Mlv 161-235. I can solo 1 [one only] lv 161 MOB but it takes me about 5 minutes to kill it, that same MOB with it's Fire resistence de-buffed by the Mage now takes me only 15 seconds to kill with him fire balling it as well.
"BUGS"...Mages & Archers are fodder for Bugs, they can't handle this agrro melee physical damage attacking beast, the only way a Mage can is if a Warrior melee class like myself can keep it busy attacking Only Me. btw I can't solo this Olthio Sentinel lv 161 Bug their too fast & difficult to hit. I tried to run from 2-3, 1 kept up with me as I ran trying to escape it, at least I Died outside their spawn & was able to get to my body without having to call for an Army of guild mates. Now I con [consider Mlv] of the dots [Mobs] on my compass if I am going to pass to close to their Spawn.
"Undead"...Melee warriors are fodder for Undead...same as above except these are Magic casting beasts. I can fend off physical attacks, Element attacks like Fire ball sends me to my Bind town...btw these casting Mobs can de-buff my resistence to Fire & even de-buff my Melee defence skill.
IMHO there is No need to balance this aspect of the game, If I want to just Solo then I have to pick on a MOB my own level and one that does not Cast & kill me 5 seconds into the fight. Not much different than Diablo 1 Hell/Hell runs for my lv 40 Warrior...who has 3 red dots, But has not yet been able to Solo Dlv 16 Hell/Hell, Yet !!! :P
First Impressions...All Over Again - --Pete - 04-16-2004
Hi,
I started a troll priest, Hrunnod, yesterday after finishing the download and install (and, no, there was no difficulty at all getting online with Win98SE).
Hrunnod made it to level 4 with no problems in the couple of hours I had to play him. With the exception of one FedEx quest (that took me to the village more or less NE of the starting location), all the other quests were of the "kill n of x" type. I found that by picking a good position (back as protected as possible, preferably on a slight elevation), I was able to complete all the quests without death :)
My usual form of attack is two Holy Smite cast as fast as possible, followed by melee. Although I cast Lesser Heal on myself after each encounter, it really wasn't necessary most of the time, but the "use it to buff it" system made it advisable. On a couple of occasions, I was fighting two mobs at once, and then I needed to cast Holy Smite more often during combat, and occasionally Lesser Heal as well. My mana never got low enough to cause me to have to wait between combats.
Other than slight upgrades to my gear and the automatic bumps the game gives, my character is still vanilla, straight out of the box. I have yet to find anything I want to train in, or any reason to do so yet.
The one FedEx quest took me close to an inn where I acquired a hearthstone. I used it once out of curiosity, and again when I was logging out. I like the delay in using it, so that it cannot be used as an escape route ala D 1 & 2 Town Hall. I'd still like multiple stones, each tied to a specific inn, but we'll see.
Had I heard the trollish accent prior to naming my character, I would probably have named him differently. More French or central-European ;)
At least at these very low levels, a priest seems to be quite viable solo. The Lesser Heal and ability to do some melee damage would probably make him a useful addition to a party, but I've yet to test that.
Oh, and just outside the den yesterday morning there were four people having a dance ;)
EDIT: Two addenda:
It's clear what the popular races were. . . . All the Warriors will be Taurens. Blah.
Hmmm. Methinks you are overlooking the variant scum. :)
Second: How does one tell if the character is in the bonus, normal, or penalty stage of "rest"?
--Pete
First Impressions...All Over Again - Tal - 04-16-2004
Pete,Apr 16 2004, 12:11 PM Wrote:Second: How does one tell if the character is in the bonus, normal, or penalty stage of "rest"?I believe you hover your pointer over the EXP bar and the Fatigue Bar will show up. It will tell you how rested you are as I understand it.
--Pete
First Impressions...All Over Again - --Pete - 04-16-2004
--Pete
First Impressions...All Over Again - Ruvanal - 04-16-2004
Pete,Apr 16 2004, 01:11 PM Wrote:... (and, no, there was no difficulty at all getting online with Win98SE).Lucky you. Actually I am having no trouble getting online with Win98SE. I am having trouble getting the game to start long enough to even generate an error message before crashing. So until I can get the client to even start, I guess you could also say that I am not having any difficulty getting online either.
First Impressions...All Over Again - --Pete - 04-16-2004
Hi,
I guess I got lucky.
Did you try the suggestions given here?
Other than that, all I can give you is my configuration. Which is to say an old machine hooked through a hub to the cable modem (so it has a "real" Internet address). Other than Game Drive, I am not running anything in the background (that's right, no virus scan, no firewall -- I just clean things up every few weeks). I've got it set up as a desktop computer, no auto power down, no screen savers, etc. I've got a static swap file of 768 MBytes (which was nicely defragged and located with Norton Speed Disk.
All my drivers are up to date, as are all the MS "critical" updates.
If I can help in any way, give a shout.
--Pete
First Impressions...All Over Again - Ruvanal - 04-16-2004
Pete,Apr 16 2004, 03:49 PM Wrote:Did you try the suggestions given here?Yes, I went through those and some similar ones from the tech forums for over a day. I did finally get the game working about an hour ago. It took the latest set of video drivers (I had previously updated them a couple of weeks ago in an effort to see if it would help any in Lagwind City). It also took not using those switches that they listed as the switches plus the updated drivers still caused immediate crashes.
First Impressions...All Over Again - Ruvanal - 04-16-2004
Bolty,Apr 16 2004, 08:41 AM Wrote:I wanted to try a priest. Really. But reading the changes Blizzard made to the Mage class, I HAD to play another one. Plus, I wanted to see if I'd have a hard time like I did in Phase 1. With the learning curve out of the way, starting out was a breeze this time. After about 5 hours of play, I'm a level 8 undead Mage named TheBolt (please look me up to sign our guild charter this weekend!).While not too interested in priest, I did decide to try a warrior to see what differences the new beta2 test engine was doing to the classes.
While I have only played about 30 min so far I did notice a couple of significant changes for the warriors. In the beta1, the warriors would gain rage from attacks at about a rate of 1 rage per 5 points of damge that they inflicted on enemies. This made it dificult to pump up their rage in combat if they did not aquire a good weapon. In the beta2 the rage build up looks like it is at a 1 to 1 ratio for the amount gained by the warriors attacks. No more beat on monster for 4 or 5 hits in the early game so that you can get enough rage to do 1 strike attack. I di not check to see if there was an increase in the rate of gaining rage due to being hurt in combat, but it looks like it too has been beefed up some (beta1 rate was at about 1 rage/10 damage suffered).
The second thing that I noted was that the rage did not dissapate as fast as in the beta 1 game. In the beta 1 game I had tested letting the rage build up through a fight, looting and moving onto the next MOB to see how much would remain. Typically I would loose about 50 rage in that short amount of time. Since it was rare to finish combat with more than about 25-30 rage, this meant that I usually had to start every battle with doing a series of normal attacks or using a Charge rank 2 to build up enough rage to allow the usage of the warrior attacks. In the beta 2, I noticed that I could loot the monsters and move onto the next and still have enough left over rage in many cases to start the combat off with Stike attack. This is a noticably better retention of the rage level so that every combat is not like starting at cold every time.