Archers?

[Charis]

I have some extremely basic questions that perhaps you guys could answer...

1- Can you have an archer character (like a D1 rogue) in this game? What classs(es)?
2- More important, could it be viable, or does it get interrupted at short range, or have other problems?
3- Are you 'stuck' with the initial restrictions/proficiencies? Can a paladin ever use a bow? Effectively?
4- Does a character belong to a 'guild', or a player (acct) ?
5- Does WoW remind anyone else of Neverwinter Nights?
6- How do you jump? :o
7- Do Lurker Loungers / Lounging Lurkers have a set time they try to play? Which world/what lvl?
8- Do most folks try to stick to one character and go further with it, or play several? (I imagine
most would give a short test run of a few lvls in each, but after that...)
9- Does a shield add a blocking percentage, or purely +armor defense?
10 [edit] - What is the 'instance' system?
11 [edit] - How DO you stop the trading (or other) spam?

Thanks,
Charis aka "The Variant Scum Noob!"

[--Pete]

Hi,

Well, I've just played a few hours so far, and I haven't leaned much yet. But here are a few answers.

1- Can you have an archer character (like a D1 rogue) in this game? What class(es)?

In the list of talents (skills?) not yet available for my warrior is "bows". But I need to be level 23 (or thereabouts) to get it. I suppose I'll be able to find out more then. On the character screen, there is a slot for ranged weapon. I have no idea, yet, how one goes about switching the active weapon from melee to ranged, or what happens to the shield when one does.

2- More important, could it be viable, or does it get interrupted at short range, or have other problems?

No idea.

3- Are you 'stuck' with the initial restrictions/proficiencies? Can a paladin ever use a bow? Effectively?

From the list of unavailable (because of level) proficiencies, it looks that warriors, at least, can go a few different ways. Too soon to see which of the ways are viable. Magi's rogue is in the same situation and I suspect it is the same for all classes.

4- Does a character belong to a 'guild', or a player (acct) ?

A character may or may not belong to a guild, it is optional. Many of the testers that post on this board belong to the "Lounging Lurkers", primarily as an easy way to communicate with each other. Characters also belong to player accounts, which seem to be set up much like D2 accounts. One account can have multiple (I think 8) characters on it. Whether a player can have multiple accounts with a single monthly fee is not clear yet. And whether the multiple character on one account can "belong" to different servers is not clear, but I think so from some info on the "official" site.

5- Does WoW remind anyone else of Neverwinter Nights?

Never played Neverwinter :)

6- How do you jump?

Space bar -- but the key bindings are re-mappable. Haven't tried yet, so don't know if there are any gotchas like the remapping of "stand in place" in D2, which could be remapped but only worked right if left on the default "Shift".

7- Do Lurker Loungers / Lounging Lurkers have a set time they try to play? Which world/what lvl?

Only one world (or server) in the beta, so that is not an issue. AFAIK, people mostly just play when they have a chance. If there are organized game times, it is not at the LL level.

8- Do most folks try to stick to one character and go further with it, or play several? (I imagine most would give a short test run of a few lvls in each, but after that...)

I tried a couple real quick the first day, just to get a feel (for what, I'm not sure since an hour or so tells you nothing). Since then I've stuck with my boring human male warrior -- seemed the easiest to play to a sufficient level to explore the world with. When he gets up high enough to explore and to test out bows, I might give another class a shot.

9- Does a shield add a blocking percentage, or purely +armor defense?

Blocking is a skill that requires a shield to be active. And a shield does add to the overall armor. Beyond that, I still haven't figured out any details.

10 [edit] - What is the 'instance' system?

I'm not a high enough level to have experienced this yet. Based just on reading: To avoid kill stealing and camping, Blizzard instituted a system by which a party (formal group of up to 5 players) can request a quest. When that quest is granted, an instance (in the programming sense) of the quest area is generated that is only enterable by that group. The quest area has an entrance that is in the MMORPG world, but once the group has crossed that entrance, it is like playing D1 or D2 in a closed game. Now, Blizzard has said that there will be quests that will take hundreds of hours. If one of these is an instanced quest, then I hope that the instanced dungeon is persistent between sessions. More questions than answers at this point.

11 [edit] - How DO you stop the trading (or other) spam?

Somebody told me, but I forgot :( Need to jot hings down on a medium more dependable than my memory.

--Pete

[Tal]

1. It looks like Hunters are Blizzard's preferred class with the bow.
2. I believe, as with any class, that a archer can be interrupted. At least one Alpha tester that I talked to has stated that he thinks that the closer the target is, the better your chance to double the damage (crit).
3. A paladin at this point may never use a ranged weapon.
4. A character belongs to an acct but that character may be a member of a Guild.
5. Not even close. ;) (WoW is better)
8. Both actually
11. I believe you type /2 Leave

[Saxywoo]

"In the list of talents (skills?) not yet available for my warrior is "bows". But I need to be level 23 (or thereabouts) to get it. I suppose I'll be able to find out more then. On the character screen, there is a slot for ranged weapon. I have no idea, yet, how one goes about switching the active weapon from melee to ranged, or what happens to the shield when one does."

Kind of makes you wonder if someone in Blizz is a Conan fan... Warriors using bows... I can't wait....

SaxyCorp

[Nystul]

1) There are many ranged weapons in this game, ranging from bows to guns to wands to thrown objects. The tank classes can eventually use bows and guns, around level 20ish, at the cost of a few skill points. The magic classes can use wands earlier, but I haven't seen a wand yet with a lower level requirement than about 15. Rogues (and maybe other, I forget) can use thrown items much earlier. It is not clear yet how early hunters will be able to use guns or bows.

Here is my experience with a warlock using a wand. He has a dagger equipped in his right hand, nothing in his left hand (no shield proficiency), and a wand in his ranged slot. Once an item is equipped into that slot, you can drag an icon onto your hotkey bar and do a very fast swap into a ranged attack. His wand is like many spells, in that the waiting to shoot occurs before the shot rather than afterwards. But unlike the spells, his wand is not interrupted by most enemy attacks (some special attacks or spells will interrupt pretty much everything). It also does not "cost" anything to use a wand, whereas throwing weapons get used up and bows/guns will need ammo.

I assume that if you have a bow and a shield, the shield will be on your back when you fire the bow.

2) Since I haven't been able to use a bow and only have made limited use of wands and throwing weapons, I'm not sure about viability. It seems to me that you will be trading the distance ability for a great reduction in damage rate, potential loss of a shield, and the consumption of ammo. For solo, I imagine most characters would probably get a few shots of their bow/gun off and then hotkey back to their melee weapon as the enemy gets within range. Having the first shot with a ranged weapon can be a big advantage, but in some cases it takes away other options, like the warrior's "charge" or the rogue's attack-from-behind skills.

3) You have initial proficiencies, and then a limited set of other proficiencies that you can learn at certain levels. A few of these might be "trained" with cash, but most of them require the investment of 2 skill points. These are the points you would otherwise be using on trade skills. I believe a paladin can eventually learn to shoot a bow or gun, but a mage or warlock cannot.

4) I'm not quite sure which question you are asking here. Characters primarily belong to accounts. Characters also belong to guilds. As far as I know, accounts cannot belong to guilds (I can have my characters be in different guilds, or I can have them all join the same guild, but so far I only know how to do it one character at a time).

5) Yes, it does remind me a bit of NWN. I think NWN is kind of a hybrid of the MMORPG concept and the games like Baldur's Gate. This would definately not be like one of the "heavy roleplaying" NWN servers though... WoW is not much more about roleplaying than Diablo 2 as far as I can see.

6) To jump, you press the jump key :) Default is space bar.

7) The guild setup allows us to easily see which lurkers are on, what level they are, and where they are. Due to the insane amount of hours some of us have been playing, the chance to group up some of the time is pretty good without any arrangements. Grouping up with random people has been a fairly enjoyable experience thus far, too.

8) Some people are sticking with one character, and others are juggling between several.

9) There is a chance to block with shields, which is now related to the strength stat (funny how these things go full circle). I don't think anything about a specific shield affects your blocking chance (although I could be wrong), unless of course it has a strength bonus.

10) I think the others covered this. Basically it is a situation where you enter a dungeon, get a level-loading screen, and get your own "instance" of that dungeon, separate from other parties who could be simultaneously playing that dungeon in other instances.

11) You can "/leave" the general channel and/or trade channel as needed. You can also mute specific players. Since there is a channel for your party and a channel for your guild, there is never a reason to feel compelled to keep general and trade channels open.